Are you wasting money on deodorant? The answer can be found in your ears | Suzi Gage

There really is 'a gene for sweaty armpits', but new research suggests that the lucky people who don't have smelly sweat still use expensive and chemical-laden deodorantsIf a newspaper headline asks "have scientists found the gene for x?", chances are the article underneath could be replaced with the word "no". But a single gene variation possessed by about 2% of people in the UK means they don't produce the secretions in their underarms that attract smelly bacteria. Research from colleagues of mine in Bristol suggests that despite this, most of these sweet-smelling people still use deodorant even though they don't need to, wasting money and potentially exposing themselves to unnecessary chemicals.Very few human traits are truly "Mendelian"; that is, coded for in our DNA by a single gene (so named after Gregor Mendel, the 19th century green-fingered monk whose pea experiments paved the way for genetic understanding). There are a few diseases that are caused by single gene mutations, such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's, but the transmission of inherited traits is for the most part a lot more complicated than differences in single genes.There is one trait known to be dictated by a single gene though: earwax type. Most Europeans have wet earwax, because they have at least one copy of the "wet" version of a gene (catchily called ABCC11). Just over a million people in the UK have a rarer dry type of earwax, as they have two copies of a different version of the gene (we all ha...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Blogposts Genetics guardian.co.uk Health & wellbeing Human biology Life and style Science Source Type: news