whats the difference between omnipotent and totipotent?!?

Question

blues · Answer

There really isn't one. As I understand it, omnipotent is a term which comes from the early days of stem cell research and merely refers to an undifferentiated cell which has the capacity to differentiate into 'many' different types of cell.

As the field progressed, the early terms were replaced with more precise ones for each 'degree of potency.'

Totipotent refers to an undifferentiated cell which could turn into ANY type of cell in the fully developed organism. After a couple rounds of division, these totipotent cells turn into 'pluripotent' cells which will take an "ectoderm", "mesoderm" or "endoderm" trajectory but which could turn into any cell type in these tissues. Following that is 'multipotency', where cells still have a few lineages open to them and then 'oligopotency' and finally 'unipotency' where cells will turn into one specific type of cell.

blues · Answer

A wonderful question! ;D