15.1 Totipotency and Speciation

Totipotency and Cell Specialisation

Totipotent cells are ones which can develop into any other cell. Examples are adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells and the majority of plant cells.

This is proved in plants, as if you took a cell from a carrot root and grew it in a suitable medium, it would grow into a whole new, genetically identical carrot. This is known as in vitro development.

The reason cells specialise is because some genes are switched off…