1. : a theory in geology: the lithosphere of the earth is divided into a small number of plates which float on and travel independently over the mantle and much of the earth's seismic activity occurs at the boundaries of these plates. 2.
Sperm DNA Fragmentation Test. The genetic integrity of the sperm is crucial for successful fertilization and normal embryo development. Sperm DNA fragmentation is a term used to denote when the genetic material within the sperm is abnormal, which in turn may lead to male subfertility and IVF failure.s a second generation sperm DNA test. It detects the sperm with DNA damage and also tells how much DNA damage each sperm have. A SpermComet test result of 45% means that there is an average of 45% damage in each sperm that was assessed.
Apoptotic DNA fragmentation, visualised by the DNA laddering assay (left). A 1 kb marker (middle) and control DNA (right) are included for comparison. Apoptotic DNA fragmentation is a key feature of apoptosis, a type of programmed cell death.Apoptosis is characterized by the activation of endogenous endonucleases with subsequent cleavage of chromatin DNA into internucleosomal fragments of roughly 180 base pairs (bp) and multiples thereof (360, 540 etc.).n apoptotic DNA fragmentation, the DNA is cleaved in the internucleosomal linker region, which is the part of the DNA not wrapped around the histones. CAD cleaves DNA at internucleosomal linker sites between nucleosomes, protein-containing structures that occur in chromatin at ~180-bp intervals.