The commitment of cells to specific cell fates and their capacity to differentiate into particular kinds of cells within a field of cells that will exhibit a certain pattern of differentiation. Positional information is established through protein signals that emanate from a localized source within a developmental field resulting in specification of a cell type. Those signals are then interpreted in a cell-autonomous manner resulting in the determination of the cell type. [GOC:dph]
Full description or abstract
Collection
C5: Ontology GO: Gene Ontology GO:BP: GO Biological Process
