Definition of Dedifferentiation
1. Noun. The loss of specialization in form or function.
Medical Definition of Dedifferentiation
1.
| Loss of differentiated characteristics.
In plants, most cells, including the highly differentiated haploid microspores (immature pollen cells) of angiosperms, can lose their differentiatiated features and give rise to a whole plant.
In animals this is less certain and there is still controversy as to whether the undifferentiated cells of the blastema that forms at the end of an amputated amphibian limb (for example) are derived by dedifferentiation or by proliferation of uncommitted cells.
Neither is it clear whether dedifferentiation in animal cells might just be the temporary loss of phenotypic characters, with retention of the determination to a particular cell type.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology
(11 Mar 2008)
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Lexicographical Neighbors of Dedifferentiation
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