LIFE SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -This ability to respond to a specific inductive signal is called competence (Waddington 1940). Competence is not a passive state, but an actively acquired condition.

Detailed explanation-2: - The ectoderm is competent to develop into the neural tube under the influence of chordomesoderm. But the endoderm and mesoderm cannot develop into the neural tube under the influence of chordomesoderm. Thus the endoderm and the mesoderm have no ability to develop into the neural tube.

Detailed explanation-3: -The second property of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions is the genetic specificity of induction. Whereas the mesenchyme may instruct the epithelium as to what sets of genes to activate, the responding epithelium can comply with these instructions only so far as its genome permits.