inˈducible, a.
Also 7 -ceable.
[f. induce v. + -ible.]
1. a. Capable of being brought on, brought about, or caused.
| a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1686 III. ix. 99 Subject to all the changes, inducible from the restless commotions of out⁓ward causes affecting and altering sense. 1958 Times 7 Nov. 7/7 This [sc. ‘vigour tolerance’] is attributed to factors such as increased weight or improved biochemical conditions, inducible as a strain characteristic to be found in extremes of environmental conditions. 1973 Nature 6 July 6/1 In the case of adjuvant arthritis—inducible in rats by remote injection of water-in-oil emulsion incorporating killed mycobacteria. |
b. Biol. Of a bacterium: capable of being induced (induce v. 4 e).
| 1953 Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. XVIII. 102/1 A growing culture of inducible lysogenic bacteria. 1959 Jacob & Wollman in Burnet & Stanley Viruses II. ix. 328 Within the same bacterial species, both inducible and non-inducible strains can be isolated. |
c. Biochem. Of an enzyme or enzyme system: produced in response to the presence of an appropriate inducer.
| 1953 [see induction 9 c]. 1966 E. R. M. Kay Biochem. xxvii. 353 Some enzymes appear only when a special, but nevertheless necessary energy source is provided, as in the case of β-galactosidase formation. Such enzymes are called ‘inducible’ enzymes. 1971 Nature 19 Nov. 135/1 In the inducible regulatory system of mammals, hormones rather than substrates..serve as inducers. |
† 2. Capable of being inferred. Obs. rare.
| 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §48 Many things are true in Divinity, which are neither inducible by reason, nor confirmable by sense. 1646 ― Pseud. Ep. vi. vi. 303 That the extream and remote parts of the earth were in this time inhabited, is also induceable from the like Testimonies. |