Question

What is the process of cell specialisation called?

Answer 1

This is the process through which generic cells become specialised cells that perform specific functions inside the body. Cell specialisation is also seen as a process of cell development.

Complete answer:
Cell specialisation is also popularly known as cell differentiation. Cell differentiation is the process through which a single cell becomes a distinct cell type. Most of the time, the cell becomes more specialised. In the course of a multicellular organism's development, it goes through many stages of differentiation as it grows from a basic zygote to a complex tissue and cell type system.
Adult stem cells proliferate and generate fully differentiated daughter cells during tissue repair and regular cell turnover, continuing the process of differentiation. When antigens are exposed, some differentiation occurs. Size, shape, membrane potential, metabolic activity, and response to signals are all substantially altered during differentiation.
Most of these changes are caused by highly regulated gene expression alterations, which are the subject of epigenetics. Contrary to popular belief, the DNA sequence does not alter during cell development.
Even while the metabolic composition changes dramatically in stem cells, which are marked by an abundance of metabolites with highly unsaturated structures whose levels decrease following differentiation. As a result, although having the same DNA, individual cells might have vastly diverse physical attributes.

Note:
In some tissues, such as the vertebrate nervous system, striated muscle, epidermis and the gut, a kind of differentiation known as terminal differentiation becomes significant. In terminal differentiation, a once-dividing precursor cell irreversibly exits the cell cycle, dismantles the cell cycle machinery and expresses genes indicative of the cell's ultimate role (such as myosin and actin for a muscle cell). As long as the cell's capacity and activities are altered, differentiation can continue.