Why do cells specialize?

MBG Türkiye / journal

Many cells in an organism share essentially the same genome, yet they can look and behave very differently. The answer is not that every cell carries a separate instruction book.

Instead, cells regulate which genes are active and when. Signals from neighboring cells and the surrounding environment contribute to these patterns of expression.

Specialization is therefore a process. Studying it means looking not just at genes, but at the systems that control their activity.