Secretory Proteins of Chironomus Salivary Glands: Structural Motifs and Assembly Characteristics of a Novel Biopolymer

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Abstract
Aquatic larvae of the midge, Chironomus (Diptera), historically have been known for the giant polytene chromosomes found in the nuclei of their salivary glands. More than a century ago, Balbiani (1881) described large puffs on these chromosomes. These puffs, referred to as Balbiani rings (BRs), were recognized by Beermann (1952, 1961) as loci of tissue-specific gene expression and are now known to be sites of intensive transcription (Pelling 1964; Case and Daneholt 1977; Grossbach 1977). Cytogenetic studies by Beermann (1961) and Grossbach (1969) led to the proposal that BRs contain genes encoding secretory proteins, the major product of the salivary gland. Secretory proteins assemble in vivo into insoluble silken threads that larvae use for feeding and construction of housing and pupation tubes.

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