raphe

Noun

raphe (plural raphae or raphes)

1. A seamlike ridge or furrow on an organ, bodily tissue, or other structure, typically marking the line where two halves or sections fused in the embryo.
   • They are inserted into the midline raphae or the anococcygeal raphae and the coccyx.2004, Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, V. Sivanesaratnam, Pratap Kumar, Alokendu Chatterjee, Essential of Obstetrics, page 28
   • It shows three symmetrical raphes (asterisk) radiating from the centre of the aortic root, but in fetuses there is often asymmetry between the raphes with the one between the left and noncoronary sinuses being larger than the others (red asterisk in Figure 2.14b).2005, Robert H. Anderson, Marco Pozzi, Suzie Hutchinson, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, page 29
   1. The connecting ridge between the two halves of the medulla oblongata or the tegmentum of the midbrain.
2. The part of the stalk of an anatropous ovary that is united in growth to the outside covering and forms a ridge along the body of the ovule.
   • The vast majority of the raphes do not bifurcate (123 genera), but the raphes of 7 genera do.2003, Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr.; Charles R. Gunn; Anna L. Weitzman, Fruits and Seeds of Genera in the Subfamily Faboideae (Fabaceae), page 24
3. A longitudinal median groove in the valve of many diatoms.
   • The invariant occurrence of adhesive EPS at both the driving and the non-driving raphes supports a model for constitutive, rather than induced, secretion of the raphe adhesive.2007, Andrew M. Smith, James A. Callow, Biological Adhesives, page 87