Development of in vitro primary cell cultures from the penaeid shrimp, Penaeus stylirostris and Penaeus vannamei and evaluation of a potential application.

Abstract

Studies have been carried out to improve the methods for producing primary cell cultures from penaeid shrimp and to make these procedures routine and practical. Using the methods developed, monolayers of primary cultures of ovarian epithelioid cells from Penaeus stylirostris and P. vannamei were routinely obtained with 60 to 80% confluences within a two day period. A variety of commercially available synthetic tissue culture media and media supplements were tested. It was found that Grace's Insect Medium supplemented with hybridoma quality fetal bovine serum provided the best results. Different culture conditions were tested and it was found that the optimum conditions for shrimp cell growth was a 25-28$\sp\circ$C temperature range with a normal atmosphere. Efforts to infect these primary shrimp ovarian cell cultures from P. stylirostris with infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) provided inconclusive results.