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: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @01:39AM (1 child)
It can't just be all the curry they eat... must be some genetically mutated super BO bacteria.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:02PM
Can BO be accumulated from past lives?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday July 29 2020, @01:44AM (10 children)
Or does it vary somewhat [youtube.com] between humans?
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:47AM (9 children)
It must vary, because I for one have very little body odor. I can literally go for days without washing and without changing clothes, sweating heavily all day long - which I do on occasion when I do bicycle tours in remote areas - and I don't smell much worse than an average desk clerk after a day's work.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:31AM (1 child)
Your girlfriend told me different.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:36AM
I wouldn't want to find leftovers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:34AM
Try going longer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:52AM (3 children)
The continual sweating is why. The stink doesn't come from the surface of the skin, but from bacteria in the pores. The people who really stink rarely sweat, so when they do sweat a bit it flushes all the crap out of their pores. You're flushing them out all the time.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday July 29 2020, @06:51AM (2 children)
I wish that was the case, but it's not. I've always sweated even while not doing anything, yet I learned long ago that if I don't wash thoroughly in the shower every day and put on good deodorant immediately afterward, I'll start developing smelly armpits within a few hours at best.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:23AM
That's not the same as Mr Coltrane was talking about. If you sweated like a long distance bike rider there would be a large pool of sweat under your chair and you'd be drinking pints per hour. What you have would be a continual dampness that actually promotes bacterial growth.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Thursday July 30 2020, @05:20AM
Try shaving your armpits. It works wonders. P
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Wednesday July 29 2020, @09:15AM (1 child)
Sure you did not go "nose blind"?
You won't smell yourself, as your sense of smell will re-baseline to the new environment. After a while, I even stopped noting the stench of my high school locker room, which was worse than the pig sty on the farm, however my all time award for smelliest thing on earth is that dumpster behind that fancy new fish restaurant.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:15PM
That's what other people tell me - that I don't smell. I know you can't trust yourself when it comes to that.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by nostyle on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:37AM (2 children)
It's difficult to see how bacteria might have evolved "tens of millions of years ago" in human armpits, when "humans" didn't actually exist back then.
(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.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @06:18AM (3 children)
If your armpit microbiome is that smelly then you probably do want to disrupt it as it indicates you're doing something wrong or are out of balance somehow.
From my understanding the 'cleaner' (more meat based) your diet is the less you smell since you'll excrete less waste products through your skin. Meat is nearly fully digested and absorbed whereas plants have a ton of different types of chemicals and processing those into usable elements takes more steps thus leading to more waste products.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:08PM (1 child)
Vegetarians take note: Meat is indirectly stored plant based food. Just passed through a preprocessor first. (with macro support)
I wonder if BO evolved to make it easier for predator animals to locate prey?
Or maybe BO is to signal to predators to please make another selection and then press ENTER.
BO must be appealing as a mate selection feature or it would seem to be bred out? Yeast based BO would also be bread out.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:08PM
SN ran an article several years ago about BO and mate selection in humans.
(Score: 2) by helel on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:08PM
The wast products in sweat come from the metallization of nitrogen, found in higher quantities in a meat based diet. Besides there's the (so far as I'm aware) one study done on the relationship between body oder and meat consumption which found non-meat eaters registered as smelling more attractive, more pleasant, and less intense." [nih.gov] The study is laughably small but it does line up with my experiences that all the worst smelling people I know eat meat and lots of it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @06:19AM
They're older than the bible?!!! Where's the armpit lynch mob!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @08:53AM
Science Identifies That Humans Body Odor is Pungent.
University of York
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:20PM
> This research represents an important discovery for Unilever R&D, made possible by its long-standing academic-industry collaboration with the University of York
Guess capitalism can work occasionally
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:42PM
Instead of constantly whining about the smell of humans, Vulcans like T'Pol should have been able to use this information to make 22nd century humans smell better. If the 21st century can solve this problem, why can't the same thing work in the 22nd century?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @05:45PM
rare but serious side effects may include ass cancer, bleeding from the ear holes, suicidal thoughts and fainting spells. Consult with your legal drug dealer so he can hand wave it all away while prescribing more poison.
(Score: 1) by jman on Thursday July 30 2020, @11:54AM
$author_comment="This research was a real $(sed 's/eye/nose/') opener.";