Life in the pits: Scientists identify the key enzyme behind body odor
Scientists have discovered a unique enzyme responsible for the pungent characteristic smell we call body odor or BO.
Scientists have discovered a unique enzyme responsible for the pungent characteristic smell we call body odor or BO.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 27, 2020
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263
Quantitative biologists at CSHL have figured out how a fly brain learns to ignore overwhelmingly prevalent, mundane odors to focus on more important ones. It's an important step towards understanding how our senses work and ...
Molecular & Computational biology
May 11, 2020
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75
Like people, rats cooperate with one another and give food to those in need, but how can they be sure that other rats are being truthful about how hungry they are?
Plants & Animals
Mar 24, 2020
2
252
Birds use odor to identify other birds, and researchers at Michigan State University have shown that if the bacteria that produce the odor is altered, it could negatively impact a bird's ability to communicate with other ...
Ecology
Oct 29, 2019
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242
Ovipositing insects use odor cues to select suitable food substrates for their offspring in order to increase the survival rates of the larvae. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology demonstrated that ...
Evolution
Oct 8, 2019
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150
Scientists from the University of Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found that male common marmosets are able to detect the fertile phase of females based on changes in their body odor. Using ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 24, 2019
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15
Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have uncovered the genetics behind two distinct types of olfactory sensory neurons; the so-called class I olfactory neurons, conserved from aquatic to terrestrial animals, ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 19, 2019
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60
Agricultural insect pests seek out familiar scents to find their plant hosts. However, they can also be repelled by odors from other plant species.
Biotechnology
Jul 23, 2019
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197
The world is filled with millions upon millions of distinct smells, but how mammals' brains evolved to tell them apart is something of a mystery.
Evolution
Jul 18, 2019
1
311
As animals explore their environment, they learn to master it. By discovering what sounds tend to precede predatorial attack, for example, or what smells predict dinner, they develop a kind of biological clairvoyance—a ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 26, 2019
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1