Schneider 2 cells, usually abbreviated as S2 cells, are one of the most commonly used ''
Drosophila melanogaster
''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (an insect of the Order (biology), order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly", "pomace fly" ...
''
cell line
An immortalised cell line is a population of cells from a multicellular organism that would normally not proliferate indefinitely but, due to mutation, have evaded normal cellular senescence and instead can keep undergoing division. The cells ...
s. S2 cells were derived from a primary culture of late stage (20–24 hours old) ''Drosophila melanogaster''
embryo
An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sp ...
s by Dr. Imogene Schneider, likely from a
macrophage
Macrophages (; abbreviated MPhi, φ, MΦ or MP) are a type of white blood cell of the innate immune system that engulf and digest pathogens, such as cancer cells, microbes, cellular debris and foreign substances, which do not have proteins that ...
-like lineage.
S2 cells can be grown at room temperature both as a semi-adherent
monolayer
A monolayer is a single, closely packed layer of entities, commonly atoms or molecules.
Monolayers can also be made out of cells. ''Self-assembled monolayers'' form spontaneously on surfaces. Monolayers of layered crystals like graphene and molyb ...
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
7 cells/ml in serum free medium and above 10
7 cells/ml in basal media such as that used in Schneider's experiments.
ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies
ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies is a Danish biotechnology company specialised in the development of new vaccines and immunotherapy products based in Hørsholm, Denmark and listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Sweden.
ExpreS2ion is part of ...
have shown a cell concentration of up 7.0x10
7 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.
[{{Cite book, last1=Yang, first1=Jianying, last2=Reth, first2=Michael, date=2012, title=Drosophila S2 Schneider cells: a useful tool for rebuilding and redesigning approaches in synthetic biology, series=]Methods in Molecular Biology
''Methods in Molecular Biology'' is a book series published by Humana Press (an imprint of Springer Science+Business Media) that covers molecular biology research methods and protocols. The book series was introduced by series editor John M. Walke ...
, volume=813, pages=331–341, doi=10.1007/978-1-61779-412-4_20, issn=1940-6029, pmid=22083752, isbn=978-1-61779-411-7
References
External links
Cellosaurus entry for Schneider 2
Insect cell lines
Drosophila melanogaster