cooperativity

noun

co·​op·​er·​a·​tiv·​i·​ty kō-ˌä-p(ə-)rə-ˈti-və-tē 

plural cooperativities

: the quality or state of being cooperative

To safeguard the scientific enterprise, cooperativity and humility need to instead become central virtues of science.

—Natalie Koffler

"It wasn't such a huge amount to achieve this cooperativity between these two different species" because wolves and humans shared similar social structures, [John] Allman argued.

—Minerva Canto

specifically, biochemistry : the molecular interaction between a ligand and a macromolecule (such as a protein) having two or more binding sites in which binding of a ligand to one site positively or negatively influences subsequent ligand binding at other sites by either increasing or decreasing the affinity of other binding sites for a ligand

Cooperativity refers to the characteristic that the remaining hemoglobin chains will have greater affinity for O₂ after one of the subunits has already bound O₂.

—Shannon Haymond et al.

… a reduction in receptor affinity for its ligand with increasing saturation of binding sites (so-called 'negative cooperativity') has been described for a number of hormones …

—Martin Raff

Word History

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above