Body odor smell depends on who

It turns out that a man's body odor is not so much of himself, but who smell, according to a study by U.S. scientists.

In the study, published Sunday in Nature, explains why the same sweaty man can smell like vanilla to some, like urine to others and likewise have no smell at all.

"This is the first time a human odor receptor is associated with how we experience odors," Hiroaki Matsunami said to Reuters, from Duke University in North Carolina. Apparently it all depends on a single receptor called OR7D4 fragrant.

Matsunami and colleagues at Rockefeller University in New York focused the pheromone androstenone present in both the sweat of men and women, but in higher concentrations in men. The androstenone acts as a chemical signal that modifies mood or hormone levels to encourage relationships. He even speculates that this pheromone alter moods.

"It is well known that people have different perceptions to androstenone. But people never knew which was the basis for it, "Matsunami said.

Pera to discover the reason, researchers in Matsunami laboratory, tested 400 receptors known as its response to 66 odors. Then combined these results with the experience of over 300 volunteers who were asked to smell those 66 flavors in different concentrations. Participants were asked how they are perceived, whether they were pleasant scents and what was the intensity of each fragrance.

Then they took a blood sample to isolate your DNA, from which sequenced the gene encoding the receptor OR7D4. That way, they could see how variations in that gene directed the sensitivity to the smell of sweat.

Some found the smell pleasant, others unpleasant or even a group was neutral. "The smell can be a very important social sign but also what is striking to some, for others it goes unnoticed," says Andreas Keller of The Rockefeller University.

Via | Reuters and ABC