Polytene chromosome

To increase cell volume, some specialized cells undergo repeated rounds of DNA replication without cell division (endomitosis), forming a giant polytene chromosome. Polytene chromosomes form when multiple rounds of replication produce chromatids that remain synapsed together in a haploid number of chromosomes. They have characteristic light and dark banding patterns which can be used to identify chromosomal rearragements and deletions.

Chromosome puffs are diffuse uncoiled regions of the polytene chromosome that are sites of RNA transcription. A Balbiani ring is a large chromosome puff.

In addition to increasing the volume of the cells nuclei and causing cell expansion, polytene cells may also have a metabolic advantage as multiple copies of genes permits a high level of gene expression.

Polytene chromosomes were originally observed in the larval salivary glands of Chironomus midges by Balbiani in 1881, but the hereditary nature of these structures was not confirmed until they were studied in Drosophila melanogaster in the early 1930s by Emil Heitz and Hans Bauer. They are known to occur in secretory tissues of other dipteran insects such as Malpighian tubules of Sciara and also in protists, plants, mammals, or in cells from other insects. Some of the largest polytene chromosomes described thus far (see scale bar in figure below) occur in larval salivary gland cells of the Chironomid genus Axarus.