Polytene chromosomes are large chromosomes which have thousands of DNA strands. They provide a high level of function in certain tissues such as salivary glands of insects. Polytene chromosomes were first reported by E.G.Balbiani in 1881. Polytene chromosomes are found in dipteran flies: the best understood are those of Drosophila, Chironomus and Rhynchosciara. They are present in another group of arthropods of the class Collembola, a protozoan group Ciliophora, mammalian trophoblasts and antipodal, and suspensor cells in plants. In insects, they are commonly found in the salivary glands when the cells are not dividing. They are produced when repeated rounds of DNA replication without cell division forms a giant chromosome. Thus polytene chromosomes form when multiple rounds of replication produce many sister chromatids which stay fused together. Polytene chromosomes, at interphase, are seen to have distinct thick and thin banding patterns. These patterns were originally used to help map chromosomes, identify small chromosome mutations, and in taxonomic identification. They are now used to study the function of genes in transcription. Function 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. In Drosophila melanogaster, for example, the chromosomes of the larval salivary glands undergo many rounds of endoreduplication to produce large quantities of adhesive mucoprotein (“glue”) before pupation. Another example within the fly itself is the tandem duplication of various polytene bands located near the centromere of the X chromosome which results in the Bar phenotype of kidney-shaped eyes. The interbands are involved in the interaction with the active chromatin proteins, nucleosome remodeling, and origin recognition complexes. Their primary functions are: to act as binding sites for RNA pol II, to initiate replication and, to start nucleosome remodeling of short fragments of DNA. Structure In insects, polytene chromosomes are commonly found in the salivary glands; they are also referred to as "salivary gland chromosomes". The large size of the chromosome is due to the presence of many longitudinal strands called chromonemata; hence the name polytene (many stranded). They are about 0.5 mm in length and 20 μm in diameter. The chromosomal strands are formed after repeated division of the chromosome in the absence of cytoplasmic division. This type of division is called endomitosis. The polytene chromosome contains two types of bands, dark bands and interbands. The