Telomeric puffing induced by heat shock in Chironomus thummi.

We summarize the most remarkable features of the heat shock inducible large telomeric puffs (T-BRs) in polytene chromosomes of Chironomus thummi. Kinetic aspects of formation of T-BRs as well as their transcriptional behaviour clearly support the view that T-BRs are components of the heat shock response in Chironomus. Available molecular data indicate T-BRs to include long arrays of 176 bp tandem repeats. A large transcript (> 10 kb) encompassing the telomere associated repeat has been detected. Several other similarities between T-BRs of Chironomus and the hsrω genes of Drosophila suggest the T-BRs to be hsrω counterpart in Chironomus.