Table 1. The various levels of cellular developmental potential.

Totipotency	Potential to give rise to a functional organism with all its cell lineages. In mammals exclusively the zygote and the first four to eight blastomeres are totipotent.
Pluripotency	Potential to give rise to all somatic lineages of the body; e.g. embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells.
Multipotency	Ability of adult stem cells to form multiple cell types of one lineage; e.g. hematopoietic stem cells.
Unipotency	Cells form one cell type; e.g. spermatogonial stem cells, which at least under natural conditions, are only able to generate sperms.