The process in which a precursor cell type acquires characteristics of a more mature T-cell. A T cell is a type of lymphocyte whose definin characteristic is the expression of a T cell receptor complex. [ http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/go/references/0000022 GOC:mah GOC:jid ]
Synonyms: T-lymphocyte differentiation T lymphocyte differentiation T-cell differentiation
Term information
Note that the term 'thymocyte differentiation' was merged into this term because thymocytes are T cells, and thus the term was essentially redundant. Note that immunologists typically use the word 'development' to refer to cells of B or T cell lineages undergoing the process that GO describes as 'cell differentiation'.