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Smell tests of cultures of wintergreen and banana odor generators

At the 2006 iGEM Jamboree, we conducted blind smell tests in which iGEM participants had to distinguish between cell cultures producing wintergreen odor, banana odor and the natural fecal odor of E. coli. Of the 116 respondents, 64% were able to correctly identify the culture producing methyl salicylate through its wintergreen bouquet, 87% were able to correctly identify the culture producing isoamyl acetate through its banana bouquet, and 86% were able to correctly identify the laboratory E. coli strain TOP10 through its stink. The error bars are the specific margin of error at 95% confidence. For the smell tests, we used the odor-free chassis (E. coli strain YYC912) for the wintergreen and banana odor generators.