Page "Cellular differentiation" Paragraph 0

In developmental biology, cellular differentiation is the process by which a less specialized cell becomes a more specialized cell type.

Differentiation occurs numerous times during the development of a multicellular organism as the organism changes from a simple zygote to a complex system of tissues and cell types.

Differentiation is a common process in adults as well: adult stem cells divide and create fully differentiated daughter cells during tissue repair and during normal cell turnover.

Differentiation dramatically changes a cell's size, shape, membrane potential, metabolic activity, and responsiveness to signals.

These changes are largely due to highly controlled modifications in gene expression.

With a few exceptions, cellular differentiation almost never involves a change in the DNA sequence itself.

Thus, different cells can have very different physical characteristics despite having the same genome.