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Cell types

What is a cell type?

This wikibase is a shot at formalizing meanings for cell types and cell type descriptors.

Formal criteria

The notion is that anything that any class of cells that fits the 3 following criteria is formally a cell type:

• The instances are rigorously defined (i.e. you have guidelines for telling wheter a cell is or isn't an instance of that class)
• The class' instances are present in a specific taxon
• The class is considered useful by any research project.

Some subdefinitions help to organize it.

Note that these are not considered axioms, as the second (* The class' instances are present in a specific taxon) can be partially inferred from the first, as this might be needed for a rigorous definition.

Subdefinitions

Cell archetype

A cell type defined for more than one species, e.g. "neuron")

Cell type strictu sensu

A cell type defined for one taxon (e.g. "human neuron")

Cell infratype

A cell type defined for a taxon below the species level (e.g. "C57BL/6J mice neuron")

Technotype

A cell type that rigorously corresponds to what is being measured in a given experiment ("ex: CD4+ CD8- FACS-sorted C57BL/6J mice cell")