North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Ed Forest" <edforest55@hotmail.com>]

Some of you may find this article in Science News to be of interest, some 
imaginative bioengineer could someday breed fruit blooms that would produce 
their own heat:

http://www.sciencenews.org/20031213/bob9.asp

Skunk cabbages can bloom inside a snowbank and create their own ice caves. 
"You can break through the snow and look into these fantastic spaces," 
Seymour says.
In experiments at air temperatures around 15°C, the inner core averaged some 
9° higher. When the air temperature dropped to –15°C though, the fingerlike 
projections reached temperatures 30° higher than the air. "Some mammals 
can't even do that well," says Seymour.
An enzyme in the pathway, alternative oxidase or AOX, occurs only in plant 
cells, where it's located in the cell powerhouses called mitochondria.

Kevin Bradley

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