Totipotency

• Cells such as fertile eggs, which can mature into any body cell, are known as totipotent cells.
• The early cells that are derived from a fertilised egg are also totipotent, and can later differentiate and become specialised for a particular function.
• Cells are able to become specialised because during this process, only some of the genes are expressed. This means that only part of the DNA of a cell is translated into proteins. The cell, therefore, only produces the proteins required to carry out a specific function.