AXENIC CULTIVATION OF THE BRINE SHRIMP ARTEMIA SALINA

¹ Haskins Laboratories, New York 17, N. Y., and Dept. of Fisheries, Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

1. Artemia salina can be grown aseptically to adults in a non-living medium.

2. The components of the medium are: sea water, Trypticase, liver infusion, hydrolysed RNA and DNA, serum, sucrose, cholesterol, paramecium factor, glutathione, a mixture of B vitamins, and starch particles.

3. Glutathione, thiamine, and folic acid were found essential even in the presence of Trypticase and serum. Glutathione can be replaced by cysteine. Horse or beef serum (Difco) supply unidentified heat-stable nutrients. Cholesterol and mixtures of fatty acids become rapidly toxic, and do not replace serum.

4. Artemia is a voracious particle feeder and transforms the starch particles rapidly into fecal pellets. In the absence of starch particles, the liquid part of the medium, though containing all the nutrients. supports growth only to the third-stage metanauplii. This indicates that the rate of ingestion (swallowing) of liquids is too low to support continuous growth and that the particles are necessary to increase the swallowing reaction.