Facultative parthenogenesis validated by DNA analyses in the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus).

In reptiles, the mode of reproduction is typically sexual. However, facultative parthenogenesis occurs in some Squamata, such as Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) and Burmese python (Python bivittatus). Here, we report facultative parthenogenesis in the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus). We found two fully developed female neonates and 17 undeveloped eggs in the oviduct of a female anaconda isolated from other individuals for eight years and two months at Ueno Zoo, Japan. To clarify the zygosity of the neonates, we analyzed 18 microsatellite markers of which 16 were informative. We observed only maternal alleles and no paternal alleles for all 16 markers. To examine the possibility of the long-term sperm storage, we estimated allele frequencies in a putative parental stock by genotyping five unrelated founders. If all founders, including the mother, are originated from a single Mendelian population, then the probability that the neonates were produced by sexual reproduction with an unrelated male via long-term sperm storage was infinitesimally small (2.31E-32 per clutch). We also examined samples from two additional offspring that the mother delivered eight years before her death. We consistently observed paternal alleles in these elder offspring, indicating that the mother had switched from sexual reproduction to asexual reproduction during the eight years of isolation. This is the first case of parthenogenesis in Eunectes to be validated by DNA analysis, and suggests that facultative parthenogenesis is widespread in the Boidae.

Gate-tunable large negative tunnel magnetoresistance in Ni-C60-Ni single molecule transistors.

We have fabricated single C(60) molecule transistors with ferromagnetic Ni leads (FM-SMTs) by using an electrical break junction method and investigated their magnetotransport. The FM-SMTs exhibited clear gate-dependent hysteretic tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) and the TMR values reached as high as -80%. The polarity of the TMR was found to be always negative over the entire bias range studied here. Density functional theory calculations show that hybridization between the Ni substrate states and the C(60) molecular orbitals generates an antiferromagnetic configuration in the local density of states near the Fermi level, which gives a reasonable explanation for the observed negative TMR.

Rotation and anisotropic molecular orbital effect in a single H2TPP molecule transistor.

Electron transport through a single molecule is determined not only by the intrinsic properties of the molecule but also by the configuration of the molecule with respect to the lead electrodes. Here, we show how electron transport through a single H2TPP molecule is modulated by changes in the configuration. The Coulomb stability diagram of a single H2TPP molecule transistor exhibited a few different patterns in different measurement scans. Furthermore, the sample exhibited negative differential resistance, the magnitude of which changed with the pattern in the Coulomb stability diagram. Such behavior can be explained by the rotation of the molecule with anisotropic molecular orbitals in the gap electrodes induced by electrical stress. Moreover, we find that the energy separations between molecular orbitals are also affected by the rotation, confirming that the metal-molecule interface configuration renormalizes the electronic levels in the molecule.