Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: Heather Jameson on 13/06/2019 16:02:45

Title: How does a cell know it is a muscle cell vs a skin cell?
Post by: Heather Jameson on 13/06/2019 16:02:45

Jon asked:

I heard about using stem cells to cure heart disease, which got me to wonder exactly how a cell knows what kind of cell it is.  That is, the genome is available to create a variety of proteins, and some pattern of enabling occurs for each type of cell, but where is the identity of the cell stored?  How does a cell know it is a muscle cell vs a skin cell?

Can you help?

Title: Re: How does a cell know it is a muscle cell vs a skin cell?
Post by: evan_au on 14/06/2019 04:28:43

The identity of a cell is stored in epigenetic markers.

As cells specialise in the embryo, epigenetic markers are added to indicate what part of the body it is, and that directs further specialisation into individual tissues, with more specific epigenetic markers.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics#Development

Title: Re: How does a cell know it is a muscle cell vs a skin cell?
Post by: Iluminatis on 22/07/2019 09:14:23

Hey thank you for sharing