Chapter 11 Methods with Insect Cells in Saspension Czlltzlre

Techniques for growing cells and tissues of insects in culture have improved dramatically in the last 10 years. There now exist established lines derived from numerous species, particularly among the Diptera and Lepidoptera, and the number is rapidly increasing as methods favorable to establishment are refined (reviewed by Brooks and Kurtti, 1971). Eventually, it may be possible to obtain cell lines with known genetic alterations by the choice of an appropriate mutant strain as starting material. The conditions under which these lines must be grown, however, are not well suited to investigations of insect cell biology at the molecular level. It is not always possible, for example, to grow the cells in conventional suspension culture and thereby obtain the quantities of macromolecules neces-