They Smell Like Twins

jerry submitted, created time 3 months 1 week (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

How much you smell depends on how often you bathe, but precisely how you smell depends on your genes, a new study suggests. The body odors of identical twins are significantly more similar than the scents of unrelated people, researchers in Switzerland have found. The results could pave the way for new tools to diagnose disease or identify people based on scent.

Body odor emanates from a chemical reaction between bacteria on the skin and sweat, a secretion that itself is odorless. BO plays a role in mate selection among mice, and some experiments have suggested its importance for human mate selection as well (ScienceNOW, 18 June 2004). Among the most prevalent chemicals in body odor are at least 24 kinds of carboxylic acids. But it wasn't known how much of each of the various acids a person produces, says lead researcher Andreas Natsch, a biochemist for the Givaudan fragrance company in Dübendorf, Switzerland.

Keywords: scents body odor twins genes smell body odors