People With This Mutation Can’t Smell Stinky Fish – The New York Times

Most people carry an intact version of TAAR5, and easily recognize the fishy fragrance as mildly repulsive an ability that might have evolved to help our ancestors avoid spoiled food. But a small number of the Icelanders in the study carried at least one broken copy of the gene that appeared to render them insensitive to the scent. When asked to describe it, some even mistook it for a sugary dessert, ketchup or something floral.
They were really not even in the right ballpark, Dr. Gísladóttir s…

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