Perfume genes lay down the nicer odour line

Perfume genes lay down the nicer odour line
PARIS, JAN 26

PARIS, FEB 26: German researchers believe a perfume is a unique purchasedriven by an individual's genes - a person will subconsciously choose a type of scent that magnifies their body odour, instead of masking it as most people think.

They asked 137 male and female students to grade theirliking for 36 scents, ranging from vanilla and jasmine to lilac and bergamot.

The volunteers also gave a blood sample, which wasanalysed for so-called mhc genes, whose proteins are known to influence body odour, the British weekly new scientist says in next saturday's issue.

People who shared certain mhc genes liked the samescents, they found. The same experiment was conducted two years later and the results were largely unchanged.

Their thinking is that people unconciously use perfumeto amplify body odour, rather than cover it up.

The whiff advertises the makeup of the individual'simmune system, sending out vital but invisible signals of sexual availability, genetic health and compatibility to other people.

The research, conducted by manfred milinski of themax-planck-institute at ploen and by claus wedekind, now at the university of edinburgh, is to be published in specialist journal, behavioral ecology.