{"term":{"id":"15576","title":"comet assay","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - comet assay","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.15576","code":"15576","status":"current","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Means of measuring DNA damage, particularly DNA strand breaks. A cell is embedded in agar and exposed to a DNA-damaging agent. The cell is then permeabilized with a detergent, and an electric field is applied. If the cell’s genomic DNA has been broken into small fragments, these fragments move out of the cell by electrophoresis and form a streak or 'tail' leading away from the cell which looks like a comet.","sources":["PAC, 2007, 79, 1153. 'Glossary of terms used in toxicology, 2nd edition (IUPAC Recommendations 2007)' on page 1193 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/pac200779071153)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/15576\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/15576\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/15576\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'comet assay' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.15576","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-06-06T21:40:36+00:00"}}