Triatominae are hematophagous insects involved in the transmission of Chagas disease. Among the 19 genera of the subfamily, those with the highest epidemiological importance regarding the dissemination of Trypanosoma cruzi are Panstrongylus, Rhodnius, and Triatoma. Of these three genera, Rhodnius presents the greatest difficulties for specific identification. Thus, there is a need to overcome the difficulties in identifying phenotypes of similar species of this genus. In the present study, the MALDI-TOF MS methodology was used to identify 12 Rhodnius species, among the 21 admitted. The MALDI-TOF MS methodology allowed specific characterization through the identification of peptides and proteins, starting from four different methods of extraction: (A) acetonitrile/formic acid (ACN/AF), (B) acetonitrile/trifluoroacetic acid (ACN/TFA), (C) isopropyl/formic acid (IPA/AF), and (D) methanol/formic acid (MeOH/AF), and four types of MALDI-TOF matrices: α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA), sinapic acid (SA), 6-aza-2-thiothymine (ATT), and 2,6-dihydroxyacetophenone (DHAP). The experiments were performed by combining the four solvents and four matrices to select the best MALDI extraction/matrix. The application of the MALDI-TOF MS technique, through the digital mass spectrometry approach combined with chemometric tools, such as partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), was able to discriminate 12 species of Rhodnius genus, which are difficult to identify using morphological characteristics. Thus, in view of the results obtained, the methodology described in the present article can be applied with speed and efficiency for the discrimination of Triatominae species. Graphical Abstract.

中文翻译：

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红景天属 通过基质辅助激光解吸/电离质谱法和化学计量学工具，根据肽/蛋白质谱进行区分。

三角藻是与南美锥虫病传播有关的食血昆虫。在亚科的19个属中，就克鲁氏锥虫的传播而言，流行病学重要性最高的是Panstrongylus，Rhodnius和Triatoma。在这三个属中，Rhodnius提出了最大的特异性鉴定困难。因此，需要克服在鉴定该属的相似物种的表型方面的困难。在本研究中，使用MALDI-TOF MS方法确定了21种罗得牛物种。MALDI-TOF MS方法可通过鉴定肽和蛋白质进行特定的表征，从四种不同的提取方法开始：（A）乙腈/甲酸（ACN / AF），（B）乙腈/三氟乙酸（ACN / TFA） ，（C）异丙基/甲酸（IPA / AF）和（D）甲醇/甲酸（MeOH / AF），以及四种MALDI-TOF基质：α-氰基-4-羟基肉桂酸（CHCA），芥子酸（SA），6-氮杂-2-硫代胸腺嘧啶（ATT）和2,6-二羟基苯乙酮（DHAP）。通过组合四种溶剂和四种基质以选择最佳的MALDI萃取/基质进行实验。MALDI-TOF MS技术的应用，通过数字质谱方法与化学计量学工具（例如偏最小二乘判别分析（PLS-DA））相结合，能够区分12种难以识别的Rhodnius属。使用形态特征。因此，鉴于所获得的结果，本文所述的方法可快速有效地应用于对三角藻种类的鉴别。