Stem cells
In the beginning
- That very first cell is called a zygote
- The cells in the zygote divide by mitosis to make a bundle of cells
- after about a week the zygote is called an embyro
click to edit
- Stem cels intially become a type of tissue e.g nerve tissue
- tissue cells continue to differentiate - becoming more and more specialised
- stem cells can replace damaged cells to repair tissue
Information
- When cells specalise : some genes switch off whilist ithers stay on
- Genes left on will carry information for specific functions e.g becomes a red blood cell, cardiac muscle cell, a nerve cell
- All cells start of identical (contains the same gene)
- Stem cells are unspecialised cells which can divide in order to: Self-renewable (copying) or
Differentiation (specalise)
Stem cells in animals are unspecialised cells which can divide in order to self-renew or differentiate