Amino Acid Requirements of Some Continuous Cell Lines of Insects

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Abstract
The essential amino acids for the growth of insect cells in cultures were determined by the use of single amino acid-deficient media. The continuous cell lines derived from a moth, Mamestra brassicae, and from 2 mosquito spp., Aedes aegypti and Culex molestus, were cultured in the media from which 1 amino acid had been omitted. The growth rate in 8 day cultures was examined and further continuous subculturing was conducted up to 10th passage with amino acid-deficient media. Arginine, cystine, glutamine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine and valine were essential for the growth of all the cell lines examined. Asparagine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, .alpha.-alanine and .beta.-alanine seem to be non-essential for the growth of the cells. The role of glycine could not be determined.