Each Person Has a Different Sense of Smell, DNA Determines the Difference

Every person has a different way of interpreting smell because there are almost a million variations on 400 smell receptors, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Duke University found that a different in the smallest level of DNA - one amino acid on one gene - can determine whether a person finds a particular smell pleasant or otherwise. They also discovered that there are almost a million variations on 400 smell receptors and this confirms their hypothesis that every person smells things differently. The researchers also claimed that a different amino acid on the same gene in a friend's body could mean they find an odor offensive while you might find it pleasant.

900,000 genetic variations on 400 smell receptors in the nose have been named by the 1000 Genomes Project. These receptors are responsible for controlling the sensors that determine how we smell different scents. Thus, a particular scent activates a suite of receptors in the nose and thus which sends signal for the brain. Hiroaki Matsunami, associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the university's school of medicine said: "There are many cases when you say you like the way something smells and other people don't. That's very common."

"We found that individuals can be very different at the receptor levels, meaning that when we smell something, the receptors that are activated can be very different from one person to the next depending on your genome." Matsunami explained when comparing the receptors in two different people, there should be about 30 percent difference and this figure is still conservative. Their findings are published in the journal of Nature Neuroscience.