Experimental crosses between Mepraia gajardoi and M. spinolai and hybrid chromosome analyses reveal the occurrence of several isolation mechanisms.

Hematophagous insects of the subfamily Triatominae include several species with a large variety of shapes, behavior and distribution. They have great epidemiological importance since most of them transmit the flagellated protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease. In this subfamily several cases of species hybridization have been reported under experimental and natural conditions. Mepraia is a genus of Triatominae endemic in Chile, responsible for transmitting T. cruzi in the sylvatic cycle. This genus includes three species, M. gajardoi, M. spinolai and M. parapatrica; however, the differentiation of M. parapatrica as a separate species remains controversial considering the possible occurrence of introgression/hybridization processes in some populations of this putative species. Mepraia species show conspicuous wing polymorphism, and it has been proposed that the genes related to wings are linked to the Y chromosome, thus wingless males could not engender winged progeny. In order to determine the degree of reproductive isolation and to assess the wing phenotype in the offspring, we performed experimental crosses between the two most divergent Mepraia species (M. gajardoi and M. spinolai) together with chromosome analyses of hybrid progenies. Although fertile F1 hybrids were obtained in only one direction of crossing, we verified the existence of different isolation mechanisms between parental species, including hybrid breakdown. The occurrence of winged males in the offspring of wingless parental males suggests that the wing character is not linked to the Y chromosome.

Topological and electron-transfer properties of the 2-thiobarbituric Acid adlayer on polycrystalline gold electrodes.

The voltammetric behavior of [Ru(NH(3))(6)](3+) on bare gold and that on 2-thiobarbituric acid (TBA)-modified gold surfaces are almost identical, with formal rate constants for the electron-transfer process of 0.25 and 0.21 cm s(-1), respectively. A detailed analysis of the modified surface allowed us to establish that this behavior is due to (i) a high surface coverage of 0.67, (ii) a low adsorption resistance that minimizes the potential drop across the TBA monolayer, (iii) the enhanced hydrophilic character of the modified surface compared with that of bare gold, and (iv) a low decay constant for the electronic coupling of the TBA adlayer that minimizes the tunneling barrier for the electron transfer. The electron-transfer process from Au and Au|TBA electrodes to the soluble [Ru(NH(3))(6)](3+/2+) redox couple can be explained according to the multistate model under the Landau-Zener formalism in the nonadiabatic regime that was recently proposed (Feldberg, S. W.; Sutin, N. Chem. Phys. 2006, 324, 216-225). The behavior of soluble [Ru(NH(3))(6)](3+) changes from semi-infinite linear diffusion on Au to finite-length bounded on Au|TBA, in agreement with a surface dimension of 2.17 for the TBA adlayer with a bidimensional underlying gold surface. This value for the surface dimension was determined by two essentially different electrochemical techniques with different sensing capabilities: cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The estimated dielectric constant of the adlayer (around 37) and the low potential drop across the monolayer suggest the formation of a "mirror" pattern of water molecules in the diffusion layer, which explains this result.

Contact angle measurements under thermodynamic equilibrium conditions.

The precise control of the ambient humidity during contact angle measurements is needed to obtain stable and valid data. For a such purpose, a simple low-cost device was designed, and several modified surfaces relevant to biosensor design were studied. Static contact angle values for these surfaces are lower than advancing contact angles published for ambient conditions, indicating that thermodynamic equilibrium conditions are needed to avoid drop evaporation during the measurements.