In vitro cultures of cells from different kinds of imaginal discs of Drosophila melanogater.

Abstract

In our previous study, a culture system was developed to establish cell lines from dissociated imaginal discs of Drosophila melanogaster (Ui et al., 1987). Under the culture conditions employed, each kind of disc showed a unique profile in primary cultures. Some of the cell aggregates formed in in vitro culture of 3 to 6 weeks were capable of differentiating into adult structures in the metamorphosing host. The ratio of aggregates with this ability, however, was different according to the particular kind of imaginal disc and appeared correlated to the efficiency of cell line establishment.