Automatic detection of sister chromatid exchange

摘要

Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) is an interchange of geneticmaterial between replication products at homologous loci. Variouschemical agents or other environmental physical factors can cause SCE atconcentrations insufficient to produce other significant change inchromosome morphology. A method for automatic detection of SCE ispresented. By searching for the zero-crossing points in the averageintegrated optical density ratio, SCEs are detected and locatedaccurately. In a preliminary experiment with 266 chromosomes, a systembased on this method has achieved an accuracy of 95.5%. By monitoringand comparing the spontaneous and inductive SCE frequency, one canestimate the nature and degree of the damage the organisms suffered andappraise the short-term and long-term effects on them