totipotency
Definition
Noun: 1. The ability of a single cell to divide and produce all the differentiated cells in an organism, including extraembryonic tissues. This is a fundamental property of cells like a fertilized egg or certain plant cells, allowing them to develop into a complete, new organism. 2. The capacity for total potential development. In biology, this describes the highest level of developmental plasticity a cell can possess.
Usage Examples
- Noun:
- The classic example of totipotency is a fertilized zygote, which can develop into an entire human being.
- Plant cells often retain totipotency, which is why a new plant can be grown from a single cell.
- Scientists study totipotency to understand the earliest stages of development and cellular reprogramming.
Advanced Usage
- "Demonstrate totipotency": To show or prove that a cell has this complete developmental potential.
- The experiment aimed to demonstrate the totipotency of the early embryonic cells.
- "Loss of totipotency": The process where cells become more specialized and lose their ability to form any cell type.
- The loss of totipotency occurs as cells begin to differentiate into specific lineages.
Variants and Related Words
- Totipotent (adj): Describing a cell that possesses totipotency.
- A totipotent cell has the greatest developmental potential.
- Totipotence (n): A less common synonym for totipotency.
- Pluripotency (n): A related but distinct concept where a cell can give rise to all cell types of the body but not the extraembryonic tissues like the placenta.
Synonyms
- Developmental totipotency
- Total developmental potential
Related Concepts (Not Phrasal Verbs or Idioms)
- Cellular differentiation: The process by which a less specialized cell becomes a more specialized cell type, which is the opposite of maintaining totipotency.
- Stem cell: A cell with the capacity for self-renewal and differentiation, with totipotent stem cells being the most potent type.
- Reprogramming: The process of reverting a specialized cell to a state with greater potential, such as towards pluripotency or (theoretically) totipotency.
Noun
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the ability of a cell to give rise to unlike cells and so to develop a new organism or part
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animal cells lose their totipotency at an early stage in embryonic development
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