1. (in embryology) Describing embryonic tissue that is capable of developing into a specialized tissue when suitably stimulated. See induction; evocation.
2. (in microbiology) Describing a bacterial cell that is able to take up a molecule of DNA in the process called transformation (sense 1). Typically, competence is restricted to certain strains of bacterial species, and to certain stages of the growth cycle when the competence-specific proteins are synthesized by the bacterial cells.