TOTIPOTENCY
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3595 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
Ability of some undifferentiated elements to generate a new complete system or subsystem.
The first demonstration of this strange systemic property was DE VRIES' experiment of dividing an urchin embryo and obtain two perfectly constituted urchins from the separated parts. The same process is now currently applied in botany in order to obtain from meristemes a number of genetically identical plants.
The regeneration of some animal parts when severed (for instance in lizards) seems to show that, in some cases, some cells of mature living systems may return to totipotencial undifferentiation (Demonstrated in 1997 through the successful cloning of the ewe “Dolly” in Edinburgh).
A different, but also regenerating process is the spontaneaous local reconstruction of a partly disabled network, as for instance in a brain after a not too severe cerebral haemorrhage.
It would be interesting to investigate the relation — if any — of totipotency with holographic processes.