Development of highly nutritive culture media

A highly nutritive culture medium (MGM-464) was developed for insect cell p rimary culture. The new medium consists of 6 inorganic salts, 4 organic aci ds, 21 amino acids, 3 sugars, 10 vitamins, and 8 other chemicals, including natural substances. The complete medium was generated by adding 20 ml feta l bovine serum to 100 ml MGM-464. The detail of the composition of the medi um is given in a table, and the protocol to prepare the medium is described in the text. Among the 15 kinds of cultures made with MGM-464, embryonic c ells from a walking stick and ovarian cells from the common white were subc ultured more than 70 times, and embryonic cells of a chrysomelid beetle wer e subcultured more than 15 times. Other cultures could not be subcultured. However, embryonic cells from the commercial silkworm and a cockroach, ovar ial cells from the commercial silk-worm and a sphingid moth, nervous cells from the commercial silkworm and two sphingid moths, and cells from the dor sal vessel plus surrounding tissue of the commercial silkworm survived for several mo. The cells from the honeybee embryos, aphid embryos, and plantho pper embryos were rather short-lived, and deteriorated after about 1 mo.