Abstract Aims and background Underground storage organs (USOs) have long featured prominently in human diets. They are reliable year-round resources, especially valuable seasonal climates. We review a significant but scattered literature oral recounts of USOs utilised by Noongar people the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR). important to First Nations cultures other geophyte-rich reg...

Donation after circulatory death (DCD) is a promising solution to the critical shortage of donor graft tissue. Maintaining organ viability after donation until transplantation is essential for optimal graft function and survival. To date, static cold storage is the most widely used form of preservation in clinical practice. However, ischemic damage present in DCD grafts jeopardizes organ viabil...

After a wound-desiccation stress, plant tissues can secrete products that have specific cytotoxicity against melanoma B16 cells. Healthy plant or animal cells were not susceptible to these products. Secretion of the active product varied with the plant species and the plant organs. The secretion of tubers of yam (Dioscorea cayenensis Lam), cassava (Manihot esculenta), Jerusalem artichoke (Helia...

Energy homeostasis, a fundamental property of all organisms, depends on the ability to control the storage and mobilization of fat, mainly triacylglycerols (TAG), in special organs such as mammalian adipose tissue or the fat body of flies. Malregulation of energy homeostasis underlies the pathogenesis of obesity in mammals including human. We performed a screen to identify nutritionally regulat...

A willing seller and buyer voluntarily agree upon the price for exchange of X dollars one Y widget. The trade satisfies some their human wants. Both parties are better off having made profitable or they would not have transacted. Once widget becomes a life-saving organ, like kidney, all bets according to present prohibition on trades between two seeking themselves through an exchange. We conten...

Mated females of many animal species store sperm. Sperm storage profoundly influences the number, timing, and paternity of the female's progeny. To investigate mechanisms for sperm storage in Drosophila melanogaster, we generated and analyzed mutations in Acp36DE. Acp36DE is a male seminal fluid protein whose localization in mated females suggested a role in sperm storage. We report that male-d...

It has been hypothesized that plant underground storage organs (USOs) played key roles in the initial hominin colonization of savanna habitats, the development of the distinctive skull and tooth morphology of the genus Australopithecus, and the evolution of the genus Homo by serving as "fallback foods" exploited during periods of food shortage. These hypotheses have been tested mostly by morpho...

The regulation of starch synthesis in the starch-storing organs of higher plants-organs such as tubers, the embryos of grain legumes, and the endosperms of cereals, in which starch constitutes 50 to 80% of the dry weight at maturity-is complex and poorly understood. Our ignorance of this process has been highlighted by the recent upsurge of interest in starch synthesis, fueled largely by the po...

We read with interest the excellent review by Belzer and Southard (1) on the principles of organ preservation by cold storage following vascular flushing. The UW solution developed by the authors holds the promise that improved preservation will be achieved, especially for organs other than the kidney, both in duration of safe storage and in quality of function in the early postreimpiantation p...