SMELL ACUITY FOR ACETONE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO TASTE ABILITY TO PHENYLTHIOCARBAMIDE IN A NIGERIAN POPULATION

Acetone smell sensitivity and phenylthiocarbamide taste sensitivity th resholds have been measured simultaneously for 970 Nigerians (542 male s and 428 females) using modified sorting techniques, The distribution was bimodal in both cases and the frequency of subjects with high sme ll acuity for acetone was 9.6% while that of non-tasters was 12.60% wi th a gene frequency, as computed by maximum likelihood methods, of 0.3 55 +/- 0.015, Females showed a higher frequency for smell sensitivity to acetone but a slightly lower frequency of non-tasters compared to m ales, Acetone smell sensitivity and PTC with high smell acuity for ace tone were tasters while 30.28% of subjects least sensitive taste abili ty decreased with age in the overall population, All the subjects leas t sensitive to acetone were non-tasters, a significantly higher propor tion than in the overall population, The correlation between acetone s mell acuity and phenylthiocarbamide taste ability demonstrates a stron g allelic association, All the 94 individuals with high smell acuity f or Acetone were tasters for phenylthiocarbamide.