Published: May 2, 2012 Updated: May 2, 2012 Reporters &
producers can visit Duke Medicine News and Communications for
contact information. By Duke Medicine News and Communications If
you don't like the taste of pork, the reason may be that your
genes cause you to smell the meat more intensely, according to a
new study. Duke University Medical Center scientists, working
with colleagues in Norway, found that about 70 percent of people
have two functional copies of a gene linked to an odor receptor
that detects a compound in male mammals called androstenone,
which is common in pork. People with one or no functional copies
of the gene can tolerate the scent of androstenone much better
than those with two, the researchers said. Hiroaki Matsunami,
PhD, a Duke associate professor of molecular genetics and
microbiology, had previously discovered and described the
genetics of the odor receptor for androstenone (OR7D4). But it
wasn't until a group of pork scientists in Norway contacted him
that he launched an experimen