Establishment of an insect cell strain persistently infected with an insect virus.

INSECT tissue culture has received particular attention in the fields of virology, cytology, genetics, developmental biology and insecticide research. The first insect cell line was established by Grace1 from the ovarian tissues of Antheraea eucalypti, and two others were reported to have been established from Aedes aegypti2 and Drosophila melanogaster3. This article reports the establishment of a cell strain, which has been persistently infected with Chilo iridescent virus (CIV), from the haemocytes of the rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis Walker (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae).