plural autoinducers
Definition of autoinducer
microbiology
: a molecule produced and secreted by bacteria that when present at a threshold concentration in a population of bacteria signals genetic expression in the same bacteria from which it was produced
When a crowd of bacteria and their autoinducers become dense enough, the lights in all the bacteria switch on at once.— Wendy Orent, Discover, July/August 2009 The synchronous response of bacterial populations to autoinducers confers a form of multicellularity to bacteria.— Andrew Camilli and Bonnie L. Bassler, Science, 24 Feb. 2006
Note: Autoinducers are involved in the quorum sensing used by some bacteria to detect their population density and coordinate group actions (such as the formation of biofilms).
Keep scrolling for more
Test Your Vocabulary
February 2021 Words of the Day Quiz
-
- Which is a synonym of perdure?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
TAKE THE QUIZ
Anagram puzzles meet word search.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Words at Play
Ask the Editors
Share autoinducer
Time Traveler for autoinducer
The first known use of autoinducer was in 1968
See more words from the same year