john hawks weblog  paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution
recent evolution    • Genetics of smell and population history
Wed, 2013-08-21 22:57 -- John Hawks      I want to point to a
recent paper by Jeremy McRae and colleagues [1], which
identifies previously-unknown genetic associations with smell
sensitivity to four different chemicals. The chemicals are
related to some very recognizable smells, including malt, blue
cheese, apple, and floral scents.      The paper isn't the first
to find genetic loci related to smell -- remember the famous
"asparagus urine" association [2]. And several different
polymorphisms have long been known associated with taste. But
the ability to systematically look for genetic associations that
may explain some of the variation in smell reporting among
people provides the interesting potential of explaining why
people like different kinds of foods.        By classifying
individuals into sensitivity categories (sensitive or
insensitive) based on their genotype, it can be in