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How the durian got its sulfuric stench
Fruit’s genome sequence has sulfur-related genes, which probably evolved to attract elephants and bats.

Emma Young
09 October 2017
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Sanjit Das/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The durian is prized - and hated - for its pungent, sulfury smell.
Some people adore it; others abhor it. Now, the tropical durian (Durio zibethinus) has had its genome sequenced — and the analysis reveals exactly what’s responsible for the fruit’s distinctive stench. The sequence, reported by researchers in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, should also allow scientists to identify genes involved in disease resistance and drought tolerance, the team says, as well as flavour profiles. This information is important to growers in southeast Asia, where the durian is a major crop.

Although highly popular as a food, the large, spiny, tropical durian is banned from hotels and public transport in Singapore and Malaysia, because of its penetratingly pungent odour. “It has been described as decaying onion-like, rotten eggs, sulfury, and like fried shallots,” says geneticist Bin Tean Teh of the Duke–National University of Singapore (NUS) Medical School in Singapore, whose team published the genome sequence on 9 October in Nature Genetics1. “First-time visitors to the region sometimes confuse it with a gas or sewage leak.”

The team analysed the genome of the Musang King variety of durian, which is considered a delicacy in Malaysia and Singapore. The resulting sequence reveals that D. zibethinus is closely related to the cotton and cacao plants. But it contains more copies of genes involved in the biosynthesis of volatile sulfur compounds, a major component of the durian’s scent. A study of gene expression showed that sulfur- and flavour-related pathways were switched on more strongly in the Musang King when compared with two other varieties, or cultivars, of tropical durian, including the sweeter Monthong type, which is preferred in Thailand.

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