ABSTRACT
Cockroach embryos are ideal sources of both nerve and muscle tissue for the production of dispersed monolayer cultures. The American cockroach is a particularly convenient insect to use for culturing because the eggs are laid in an ootheca that may contain up to 16 embryos. This facilitates sterilizing the eggs and permits the harvesting of relatively large quantities of developmentally homogeneous embryonic tissue. Dissociated cultures prepared from embryonic P. americana myoblasts and/or neurons are particularly useful for developmental studies, where problems such as complex cellular networks and accessibility can make in vivo experiments difficult to perform and can complicate the interpretation of experimental data. The cultured cells can be followed closely throughout development using biochemical, electrophysiological, or morphological techniques. In addition, the conditions of growth (culture media, cell density, etc.) can be easily altered and their effects on differentiation readily assessed.
