Science identifies the ancient enzyme in bacteria that makes humans' body odor so pungent:
Researchers have zeroed in on the source of our stink.
The same team that identified the handful of bacteria responsible for human body odor has now gone a step further and pinpointed the enzyme operating within those organisms. It's a cysteine-thiol lyase (C-T lyase) enzyme within bacteria like Staphylococcus hominis that makes the actual smelly molecules, which have inspired an entire industry of deodorants to contain them.
"This is a key advancement in understanding how body odour works, and will enable the development of targeted inhibitors that stop BO production at source without disrupting the armpit microbiome," said University of York researcher Dr. Michelle Rudden, in a release.
[...] "This research was a real eye-opener," said Unilever co-author Dr. Gordon James. "It was fascinating to discover that a key odor-forming enzyme exists in only a select few armpit bacteria and evolved there tens of millions of years ago."
Journal Reference:
Michelle Rudden, Reyme Herman, Matthew Rose, et al. The molecular basis of thioalcohol production in human body odour [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-68860-z)
(Score: 4, Informative) by MostCynical on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:56AM (1 child)
since a huge number of the bacteria living on and in humans [wikipedia.org] existed before humans were humans, or even multi-cellular, and many can still be found "living" happily outside/not "on" humans, chances are they moved in as soon as they could, found they liked the place, and stayed..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:26PM
Thanks to the magic of the free market, bacteria that thrive around your anus are different from those that thrive in your hair. Those sneaky bastards keep adapting.