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Glite Dictionary
😌 Calm and confident 🤸 Ready and balanced 🧬 Ready for activation
poised

poised

9.6
In cells, ready to be turned on quickly when needed
  • adjective
  • /pɔɪzd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : preparado
  • During differentiation, many developmental promoters remain poised with paused polymerase ready for rapid activation.

Examples

  • Chromatin modifications left the enhancer poised, enabling a quick transcriptional response when signals arrived.

  • The gene is poised for activation in response to stress.

  • Researchers found genes poised in stem cells that later switched on during early embryonic stages.

  • RNA polymerase is poised at the promoter region.

  • During differentiation, many developmental promoters remain poised with paused polymerase ready for rapid activation.

  • Chromatin modifications left the enhancer poised, enabling a quick transcriptional response when signals arrived.

  • Researchers found genes poised in stem cells that later switched on during early embryonic stages.

Synonyms

ready
vspoised
188 1.0

Quick to think and give a clever answer

is defined by specific molecular marks that enable rapid transcription when signalled
primed
vspoised
1 4.6

Ready to take action or respond quickly

is a biochemical state marked by molecular features enabling rapid transcription
preactive
vspoised
  • Specialized
7.4

Not yet active but ready to start

is defined by molecular features that enable very rapid transcription when signalled
waiting
vspoised
1.0

Ready and available for use or action

is a prepared molecular state that starts rapid transcription when signalled

Antonyms

dormant
17 4.0

Not active now but alive and able to become active again, for example a volcano or seed

inactive
11 2.5

Not being used or working now

How Ready

active
  • Specialized
44 3.2
primed
1 4.6
poised
  • Specialized
9.6
inactive
11 2.5
repressed
6 6.5

Surface Forms

poised positive

Morphology

poised = poise (semi-transparent) = poise + d

Morphologically formed from 'poise' + '-d', but the sense is a domain-specific metaphor ('prepared for rapid activation') that requires biological knowledge.

Etymology

In biology the word poised keeps the same picture of balance: it began from a word for weight and the Latin pendere 'to hang', so it means being held in careful balance. That's why genes or molecules called poised are kept in a ready state and can be turned on quickly.