On Friday, February 18, 2022 at 12:32:09 PM UTC-5, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
Participants carried different versions of the musk and underarm odor receptor genes, and those genetic variations affected how the person perceived the scents. In combination with previously published results, the researchers find that people with the
ancestral versions (the version shared with other non-human primates) of the scent receptors tend to rate the corresponding odor as more intense. These findings support the hypothesis that the sensitivity of humans' and other primates' sense of smell has
degraded over time due to changes in the set of genes that code for our smell receptors.
The genetic analysis also identified three associations between genes for scent receptors and specific odors that scientists had previously reported. These earlier studies include primarily Caucasian participants. The new results from East Asian and
diverse populations suggest that the genetics underlying the ability to detect odors remains constant across people from different backgrounds.
The authors add, "Genome-wide scans identified novel genetic variants associated with odor perception, providing support for the hypothesis that the primate olfactory receptor repertoire has degenerated over time."
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There's a gene for detecting that fishy smell, olfactory GWAS shows
More information: Li B, Kamarck ML, Peng Q, Lim F-L, Keller A, Smeets MAM, et al. (2022) From musk to body odor: Decoding olfaction through genetic variation. PLoS Genet 18(1): e1009564. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009564
Journal information: PLoS Genetics
Provided by Public Library of Science
Gene for detecting fishy smell, licorice-anise-cinnamon
For many people, the smell of fish is rather strong and unpleasant. But some people carry a mutation in a particular gene that makes that fish odor less intense, reports a paper publishing October 8 in the journal Current Biology. The study, which is the
largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) of olfactory genes in humans involving a sniff test and looked at over 9,000 people from Iceland, also shows that people vary in their ability to discern the smell of licorice and cinnamon.
"We discovered sequence variants that influence how we perceive and describe fish, licorice, and cinnamon odors," said Rosa Gisladottir of deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik, Iceland. "Since our sense of smell is very important for the perception of flavor,
these variants likely influence whether we like food containing these odors."
Researchers have known that people perceive odors based on olfactory receptors encoded by 855 olfactory genes. But about half of those genes in people are thought to lack function, leaving us with a relatively small repertoire of about 400 olfactory
genes. The reason humans have lost so many olfactory genes has remained mysterious. It is also not well understood how variation in these genes might influence differences among people in their sense of smell.
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