Development of continuous cell lines from the egg parasitoids Trichogramma confusum and T. exiguum

Although numerous insect cell lines have been developed over the past three decades, few of these have been from the order Hymenoptera. This report describes two new continuous cell lines from trichogrammid wasps. The extremely small size of these insects has made physiological and biochemical studies difficult. Now, with the development of the cell lines, a limitless supply of biologically active material is available for a wide variety of basic biological studies. The Trichogramma confusum and T. exiguum cell lines (designated IPLB-Tcon1 and IPLB-Tex2) were characterized by chromosome and isozymes techniques. Evidence of their utility is shown by morphological response to the developmental hormone, 20-hydroxyecdysone. The morphological change in IPLB-Tex2 is accompanied by an induction of highly contractile cells which indicates this cell line may be composed of myoblast cells.