Question about cell differentiation

[Arun Bhaskar]

Hi,

I'm very new to cell biology. What I already understand about the cells in any living organism is that all cells have the same genetic material. In more sophisticated organisms like ourselves, cells are organized into tissues and tissues into organs and so on and so forth.

My question is if all cells have the same genetic material, how come some cells become cells of muscle and some others into pancreatic cells for instance. Which differ quite a lot in structure and function.

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[Helper3]

You should be able to google this but in basic terms, before a cell is committed to becoming any particular specialized cell it is a stem cell - undifferentiated. There are certain promoting factors that trigger it to differentiate a certain way turning some genes on and others off.

 

[Arayh]

Troll question from a "resident?"

Sure your body's cells have the same DNA (unless there are spontaneous mutations and what not), but each cell activates different genes for different functions.

 

[Doctor Bob]

Troll question from a "resident?"

With only one post, it's likely they don't understand the terms when they set up their profile.
"Why yes, I am a resident of the state I live in... <click>"

 

[xnfs93hy]

Why don't you open up your Biology textbook? No need to even Google. This is a simple Gen Bio 101 question.

Pancreatic cells are coded to make pancreatic cells. Liver cells are coded to make liver cells. The rationale behind this is what parts of the DNA sequence are activated. Genes are made up of DNA which are made up of protein. Basically, the cells in your pancreas don't have the capability to make liver cells, because that part of the DNA sequence is turned off and the genes responsible for making pancreatic cells are activated.