Does your urine smell after youâve eaten asparagus? This smell is due to asparagusic acid which, as the name implies, is found in asparagus. When our bodies digest the vegetable, they break down this chemical into a group of related sulfur-containing compounds with long, complicated names (including dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide, dimethyl sulfoxide and dimethyl sulfone). As with many other substances that include sulfurâsuch as garlic, skunk spray and odorized natural gasâthese sulfur-containing molecules convey a powerful, typically unpleasant scent. However, only some humans have the special gene that allows them to smell those compounds. A survey through 23andMe.com found that of 4737 individuals of European ancestry, 3002 said they could smell asparagus in their urine and 1735 said they could not. If the A allele for odor detection is dominant over the a allele for lack of odor detection, and 1027 individuals are heterozygotes, what are the allele frequencies for this locus, assuming entirely random mating? What are the genotype frequencies? Is the population in the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?
Does your urine smell after youâve eaten asparagus? This smell is due to asparagusic acid which, as the name implies, is found in asparagus. When our bodies digest the vegetable, they break down this chemical into a group of related sulfur-containing compounds with long, complicated names (including dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide, dimethyl sulfoxide and dimethyl sulfone). As with many other substances that include sulfurâsuch as garlic, skunk spray and odorized natural gasâthese sulfur-containing molecules convey a powerful, typically unpleasant scent. However, only some humans have the special gene that allows them to smell those compounds. A survey through 23andMe.com found that of 4737 individuals of European ancestry, 3002 said they could smell asparagus in their urine and 1735 said they could not. If the A allele for odor detection is dominant over the a allele for lack of odor detection, and 1027 individuals are heterozygotes, what are the allele frequencies for this locus, assuming entirely random mating? What are the genotype frequencies? Is the population in the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?
