parent cell

American  

[pair-uhnt sel] / ˈpɛər ənt ˈsɛl /

noun

plural

parent cells

1. Biology. mother cell.

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parent cell Scientific  

/ pâr′ənt /

1. A cell that is the source of other cells, as a cell that divides to produce two or more daughter cells, or a stem cell that is a progenitor of other cells or is the first in a line of developing cells.

2. Also called mother cell

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Example Sentences

Yet in that time, only about 30 minutes is spent on the critical orchestration of mitosis, when chromosomes are carefully segregated from one parent cell to the next generation of two daughter cells.

From Science Daily • Mar. 28, 2024

Importantly, they are critical for cell division, ensuring that two new cells can be born from a parent cell.

From Science Daily • Feb. 1, 2024

Sometimes cell division is interrupted midstream, and the replicated DNA gets stuck in the parent cell instead of being divided between daughter cells.

From Science Magazine • Aug. 23, 2023

Over and over, small uncorrected errors are passed from the parent cell to the daughter cells and amplified as each generation produces more non-functional proteins from uncorrected DNA damage.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

It is from the progeny of this parent cell that we take our looks; we still share genes around, and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is a family resemblance.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas