Chapter 16 - Introduction

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To fully appreciate this tutorial, you should be familiar with the concepts of:
• Sexual reproduction (specifically fertilization)
• Cell division

After this tutorial, you will be able to describe:
• Cell differentiation and determination
• Totipotent, pluripotent, and multipotent cells
• Stem cells

How does a single-celled zygote give rise to a complex organism with many specialized parts?

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Introduction
Totipotency and determination
Cell differentiation
Relationship between differentiation and totipotency
Stem cells
Summary

Development, which is broadly defined as all the changes that occur in the life of an individual, involves some of the most fascinating and difficult problems in biology today. Of particular interest is the process by which the descendants of a single cell specialize and organize into a complex organism.