totipotency

Cultural  

1. The ability of cells such as an embryonic stem cell to differentiate into any type of body cell. Plant cells are also totipotent, which helps to explain why a graft of a plant can generate a whole new individual out of just a small branch cutting.

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Example Sentences

For example, at the four-cell stage, all cells were presumed to be equally capable of giving rise to all cell types — a state known as symmetrical totipotency.

From Nature

Rabbi Kotler understood in 1941 that America’s respect for diversity, combined with the totipotency of the Talmud, would lead to a historic revitalization of Jewish life and learning.

From The Wall Street Journal