Schneider 2 cells, usually abbreviated as S2 cells, are one of the most commonly used Drosophila melanogaster cell lines. S2 cells were derived from a primary culture of late stage (20–24 hours old) Drosophila melanogaster embryos by Dr. Imogene Schneider, likely from a macrophage-like lineage.
S2 cells can be grown at room temperature both as a semi-adherent monolayer or in suspension, and they can be grown in the absence of serum.
Several media have been developed for culturing insect cell lines with many of them suitable for culturing S2 cells. The S2 cells have been shown to grow up to 5.1×10 cells/ml in serum free medium and above 10 cells/ml in basal media such as that used in Schneider's experiments. ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies have shown a cell concentration of up 7.0x10 cell/ml.
S2 cells are often used for expression of heterologous proteins and can be used for large-scale production of proteins. Additionally, the cells can be easily transiently transfected with several plasmids at once to study protein interactions.
References
- Schneider I (1972). "Cell Lines Derived from Late Embryonic Stages of Drosophila melanogaster". J. Embryol. Exp. Morphol. 27: 363–365.
- Invitrogen (May 2, 2002). Drosophila Schneider 2 (S2) Cells (PDF). Version F. Invitrogen. 28-0172. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2012-02-25.
- Pamboukian, Marilena Martins; Jorge, Soraia Athie Calil; Santos, Mariza Gerdulo; Yokomizo, Adriana Yurie; Pereira, Carlos Augusto; Tonso, Aldo (2008-02-27). "Insect cells respiratory activity in bioreactor". Cytotechnology. 57 (1): 37–44. doi:10.1007/s10616-007-9118-8. ISSN 0920-9069. PMC 2553646. PMID 19003170.
- Moraes, Ângela M.; Jorge, Soraia A. C.; Astray, Renato M.; Suazo, Claudio A. T.; Calderón Riquelme, Camilo E.; Augusto, Elisabeth F. P.; Tonso, Aldo; Pamboukian, Marilena M.; Piccoli, Rosane A. M. (2012-05-01). "Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells for expression of heterologous genes: From gene cloning to bioprocess development". Biotechnology Advances. 30 (3): 613–628. doi:10.1016/j.biotechadv.2011.10.009. PMID 22079894.
- Dyring, Charlotte (2011). "Optimising the Drosophila S2 Expression System for Production of Therapeutic Vaccines". BioProcessing Journal. 10 (2): 28–35. doi:10.12665/j102.dyring.
- Fasbender, Frank; Claus, Maren; Wingert, Sabine; Sandusky, Mina; Watzl, Carsten (2017-07-07). "Differential Requirements for Src-Family Kinases in SYK or ZAP70-Mediated SLP-76 Phosphorylation in Lymphocytes". Frontiers in Immunology. 8: 789. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2017.00789. ISSN 1664-3224. PMC 5500614. PMID 28736554.
- Yang, Jianying; Reth, Michael (2012). Drosophila S2 Schneider cells: a useful tool for rebuilding and redesigning approaches in synthetic biology. Methods in Molecular Biology. Vol. 813. pp. 331–341. doi:10.1007/978-1-61779-412-4_20. ISBN 978-1-61779-411-7. ISSN 1940-6029. PMID 22083752.