Stem cells

• Stem cells are undifferentiated. They haven't become specialized but have the potential to differentiate into different cell types
• Two types of stem cells:

  • Adult stem cells (tissue stem cells)
  • Embryonic stem cells
• Plant stem cells are in actively growing regions called meristems, which are at the tips or the roots
• Plant stem cells can be used to produce many cloned plants quickly and economically. This technique can be used to prevent extinction of rare plants or to grow large numbers of cloned crops with advantageous features such as disease resistance.
• Adult stem cells are found in bone marrow and can differentiate only into the types of cells from where it came from. They are used to replace damaged cells such as skin and blood cells
• Embryonic cells are found in human embryos. This makes sense as human life, therefore all human cells, start in the embryo