A cell population is a defined collection of biological cells, for example the cells in a culture, tissue compartment or measured cell type. Its definition specifies which cells belong, rather than assuming that every included cell is identical. Cells can differ in cell cycle stage, differentiation, molecular abundance or future fate.
For a counted compartment, a binary cell division adds one cell to the total, while cell death removes one; migration and differentiation can also change membership. A net change in cell count does not reveal how many divisions and deaths occurred. A hundred divisions accompanied by ninety deaths gives the same net increase as ten divisions without death.
Cell lineage measurements resolve some of this ambiguity. In the primary reconstruction of Caenorhabditis elegans embryogenesis, investigators followed living cells with differential interference contrast microscopy and recorded division histories and cell fates.[ref]
The embryonic cell lineage of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans by John Sulston and others. Introduction, lineage reconstruction and Figure 3: live Nomarski observations and the embryonic pedigree
Flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing instead characterize sampled cells by measured properties. Their observed fractions need not represent the entire starting cell population if survival, dissociation or detection differs between cell types. Articles by others on the same topic
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