Lability refers to the degree that something is likely to undergo change. It is the opposite ( antonym) of stability.

Biochemistry

In reference to

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

, this is an important concept as far as kinetics is concerned in metalloproteins. This can allow for the rapid synthesis and degradation of substrates in biological systems.

Biology

Cells

Labile cells refer to cells that constantly divide by entering and remaining in the

cell cycle The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the sequential series of events that take place in a cell (biology), cell that causes it to divide into two daughter cells. These events include the growth of the cell, duplication of its DNA (DNA re ...

. These are contrasted with "stable cells" and "permanent cells". An important example of this is in the

epithelium Epithelium or epithelial tissue is a thin, continuous, protective layer of cells with little extracellular matrix. An example is the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. Epithelial ( mesothelial) tissues line the outer surfaces of man ...

of the

cornea The cornea is the transparency (optics), transparent front part of the eyeball which covers the Iris (anatomy), iris, pupil, and Anterior chamber of eyeball, anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber and Lens (anatomy), lens, the cornea ...

, where cells divide at the basal level and move upwards, and the topmost cells die and fall off.

Proteins

In medicine, the term "labile" means susceptible to alteration or destruction. For example, a heat-labile

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

is one that can be changed or destroyed at high temperatures. The opposite of labile in this context is "stable".

Soils

Compounds or materials that are easily transformed (often by

biological activity In pharmacology, biological activity or pharmacological activity describes the beneficial or adverse effects of a drug on living matter. When a drug is a complex chemical mixture, this activity is exerted by the substance's active ingredient or ...

) are termed labile. For example, labile

phosphate Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus. In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...

is that fraction of soil phosphate that is readily transformed into soluble or plant-available phosphate. Labile organic matter is the soil organic matter that is easily decomposed by

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...

Chemistry

The term is used to describe a transient chemical species. As a general example, if a molecule exists in a particular conformation for a short lifetime, before adopting a lower energy conformation (structural arrangement), the former molecular structure is said to have 'high lability' (such as C₂₅, a 25-carbon fullerene spheroid). The term is sometimes also used in reference to reactivity – for example, a complex that quickly reaches equilibrium in solution is said to be labile (with respect to that solution). Another common example is the ''cis'' effect in organometallic chemistry, which is the labilization of CO ligands in the ''cis'' position of octahedral transition metal complexes.

References

Chemical reactions {{Biochem-stub