A somatic cell (from Ancient Greek σῶμα sôma, meaning "body"), or vegetal cell, is any biological cell forming the body of a multicellular organism other than a gamete, germ cell, gametocyte or undifferentiated stem cell.

The cell which takes part in composition of the body of an organism and divides through the process of binary fission and mitotic division is called somatic cell.

In contrast, gametes are cells that fuse during sexual reproduction, germ cells are cells that give rise to gametes, and stem cells are cells that can divide through mitosis and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types. For example, in mammals, somatic cells make up all the internal organs, skin, bones, blood and connective tissue, while mammalian germ cells give rise to spermatozoa and ova which fuse during fertilization to produce a cell called a zygote, which divides and differentiates into the cells of an embryo. There are approximately 220 types of somatic cell in the human body.

Theoretically, these cells are not germ cells (the source of gametes); they transmit their mutations, to their cellular descendants (if they have any), but not to the organism's descendants. However, in sponges, non-differentiated somatic cells form the germ line and, in Cnidaria, differentiated somatic cells are the source of the germline. Mitotic cell division is only seen in diploid somatic cells. Only some cells like germ cells take part in reproduction.

 

Note:   The above text is excerpted from the Wikipedia article Somatic cell, which has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License.