- basement membrane gap expansion variant
Animals display variations in the manner in which an opening in the basement membrane (a thin, dense, sheet-like structure built on a network of polymeric laminin and type IV collagen) expands to make way for intertissue connections, compared to control animals.
- breaks in alae
The small linear ridges running along the lateral lines of the cuticle, lengthwise along the body, contain gaps as opposed to a continuous arrangement (Wormatlas).
- anchor cell invasion variant
Any variation in the process by which the gonad anchor cell makes contact with vulval cells in order to create a uterine-vulval connection. In C. elegans, this includes the loss of the basement membranes between these cells and the crossing of the basolateral portion of the anchor cell through this gap.
- precipice response variant
Animals do not respond to the edge or gap in the medium surface they were supported on in the same manner as controls. In Mitchell et al., the precipice response was defined to be that within 2 seconds of the nose moving off the edge of the agar chunk, the worm begins a reversal that completes at least one full sine wave.