Ability of stem cells to cross barrier of differentiation to transform into a cell of another lineage expressing the molecular characteristics of different cell type with the ability to perform the function of the new cell type is referred as

Stem cell is defined as a cell with a unique capacity to produce unaltered daughter cells (self-renewal) and to generate specialized cell types (potency). The prevailing paradigm in developmental biology is that once cells are differentiated, their phenotypes are stable. However, tissue stem cells, which are thought to be lineage-committed multipotent cells, possess the capacity to differentiate into cell types outside their lineage restrictions (called trans-differentiation or stem cell plasticity). For example, hematopoietic stem cells may be converted into neurons as well as germ cells.