Cell cultures and retroviral particles from a tumor of a moray eel

Until recently, fish cell culture primarily has been useful only in the pro pagation and study of epidemic viruses significant to the fishing industry. Such fish cell lines derived were developed by appropriating classical tec hniques of mammalian cell culture, with serum as the major growth supplemen t. Using an approach in which culture medium is formulated in a cell-type-s pecific manner with minimal serum and a variety of synergistic supplements, several fish cell lines have been derived that may serve Multiple uses. We established cell lines from a potentially tumorous skin lesion of a green moray eel (Gymnothorax funebris) and control tissues, and identified putati ve retroviral particles in the medium from the tumor cells that are not pre sent in medium from cultures of normal cells from the same eel. The relatio nship between the virus and the cause of the tumor is not clear, but the ge nomic structure of this virus should provide useful information ill underst anding the evolution of retroviruses in general.