Novel methods to establish whole-body primary cell cultures for the cnidarians Nematostella vectensis and Pocillopora damicornis.

ABSTRACT: Cnidarians are emerging model organisms for cell and molecular biology research. However, successful cell culture development has been challenging due to incomplete tissue dissociation and contamination. In this report, we developed and tested several different methodologies to culture primary cells from all tissues of two species of Cnidaria: Nematostella vectensis and Pocillopora damicornis. In over 170 replicated cell cultures, we demonstrate that physical dissociation was the most successful method for viable and diverse N. vectensis cells while antibiotic-assisted dissociation was most successful for viable and diverse P. damicornis cells. We also demonstrate that a rigorous antibiotic pretreatment results in less initial contamination in cell cultures. Primary cultures of both specie

SUBMITTER: Nowotny JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7893170 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature