Smelling genetic information: Molecules allow mice to sniff out the genes of other mice
Thursday, March 21, 2013 - 11:30
in Biology & Nature
Scientists have theorized that animals and humans are able to smell certain genes linked to the immune system, which in turn influences their choice of mate. The genes in question are known as MHC (major histocompatibility complex) genes. Selecting a mate with very different MHC genes from one's own makes sense, because your offspring will then have a greater variety of immunity genes -- and a correspondingly greater resistance to disease. But until now, no scent offering information about MHC genes had been discovered among those emitted by humans and animals. Now researchers have managed to do just that.