= Cell population
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.<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]{ref} <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.
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