decreased resistance of organism to zinc atom zinc response variant zinc toxicity hypersensitive C_elegans_phenotype_ontology WBPhenotype:0001749 The toxic response to zinc occurs at a lower concentration or a shorter exposure compared to control animals. In C. elegans hypersensitive animals exhibit delayed development or lethality at concentrations of zinc (e.g. ZnSO4), which has little or no effect on control worms. chemical hypersensitive