Georgieva Milena, Zagorchev Plamen, Miloshev George
Laboratory of Yeast Molecular Genetics, Institute of Molecular Biology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Medical Physics, Biophysics and Mathematics, Medical University, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Electrophoresis. 2015 Oct;36(20):2553-60. doi: 10.1002/elps.201500269. Epub 2015 Sep 1.
Comet assay is an invaluable tool in DNA research. It is widely used to detect DNA damage as an indicator of exposure to genotoxic stress. A canonical set of parameters and specialized software programs exist for Comet assay data quantification and analysis. None of them so far has proven its potential to employ a computer-based algorithm for assessment of the shape of the comet as an indicator of the exact mechanism by which the studied genotoxins cut in the molecule of DNA. Here, we present 14 unique measurements of the comet image based on the comet morphology. Their mathematical derivation and statistical analysis allowed precise description of the shape of the comet image which in turn discriminated the cause of genotoxic stress. This algorithm led to the development of the "CometShape" software which allowed easy discrimination among different genotoxins depending on the type of DNA damage they induce.
彗星试验是DNA研究中一项极为重要的工具。它被广泛用于检测DNA损伤，作为暴露于遗传毒性应激的指标。目前存在一套规范的参数和专门的软件程序用于彗星试验数据的量化和分析。到目前为止，还没有一种方法证明其有潜力采用基于计算机的算法来评估彗星的形状，以此作为所研究的遗传毒素在DNA分子中切割的确切机制的指标。在此，我们基于彗星形态提出了对彗星图像的14种独特测量方法。它们的数学推导和统计分析使得能够精确描述彗星图像的形状，进而区分遗传毒性应激的原因。该算法促成了“CometShape”软件的开发，该软件能够根据不同遗传毒素所诱导的DNA损伤类型轻松区分它们。
