Development and characterization of a continuous cell line PSCF from Puntius sophore

A continuous Puntius sophore caudal-fin (PSCF) cell line of the pool barb Puntius sophore, an important freshwater food and ornamental fish of Asia and South East Asia, was developed from the caudal fin for the first time. The cell line was optimally maintained at 28° C in Leibovitz-15 (L-15) medium supplemented with 10% foetal bovine serum (FBS). The cytogenetic analysis revealed a diploid count of 50 chromosomes at 25th and 50th passage and 52 chromosomes at passage 70, 85 and 100. The viability of the PSCF cell lines was 75% after 6 months of storage in liquid nitrogen (-196° C). The most striking feature of the PSCF cells was its high increased growth ratio as evident from the population doubling time of 25 h at passage 100. The origin of the cell lines was confirmed by the amplification of 581 and 655 bp fragments of 16 S rRNA and cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genes, respectively. The PSCF cells were successfully transfected with green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter plasmids and the expression of GFP gene in the cells indicated the potential utility of the cells in gene expression studies.