rs4481887

A SNP on chromosome 1. Its most notable genotype is A;A: most likely to smell asparagus metabolites in urine

Gene
None listed
Location
Chr 1248,333,561 (GRCh38)
Highest magnitude
2.0Worth knowing
Tested on
23andMe, AncestryDNA
Minor allele frequency
19%

Genotypes

As shown in 23andMe and AncestryDNA files.

  1. A;AMost notableNot ratedmost likely to smell asparagus metabolites in urineWorth knowing · 2.04% of people
  2. A;GNot ratedmore likely to be able to smell asparagus metabolites in urineWorth knowing · 2.029% of people
  3. G;GNot ratedleast likely to be able to smell asparagus metabolites in urineMinor · 1.567% of people

On SNPedia: (A;A), (A;G), (G;G). Magnitude rates how notable a genotype is from 0 to 10, not how risky it is.

Frequency

Share of each genotype in 11 HapMap populations.

  • AverageA;A 4% A;G 29% G;G 67%
  • European ancestry (Utah)A;A 7% A;G 44% G;G 49%
  • Han Chinese (Beijing)A;A 3% A;G 26% G;G 71%
  • Japanese (Tokyo)A;A 5% A;G 27% G;G 68%
  • Yoruba (Nigeria)A;A 2% A;G 20% G;G 78%
  • African ancestry (Southwest US)A;A 0% A;G 25% G;G 75%
  • Chinese (Denver)A;A 2% A;G 28% G;G 70%
  • Gujarati IndianA;A 1% A;G 21% G;G 78%
  • Luhya (Kenya)A;A 0% A;G 18% G;G 82%
  • Mexican ancestry (Los Angeles)A;A 7% A;G 45% G;G 48%
  • Maasai (Kenya)A;A 0% A;G 20% G;G 80%
  • TuscanA;A 14% A;G 46% G;G 40%

Notes

From SNPedia

Notes

Asparagus anosmia research was performed by 23andMe and presented at the 2009 ASHG according to geneticfuture. Asparagus anosmia Asparagus Metabolite Detection

A;A

2.3x more likely than people with (G;G) to be able to smell the methanethiol produced after eating asparagus.

A;G

1.67x more likely than people with (G;G) to be able to smell the methanethiol produced after eating asparagus.

Source and license

Adapted from rs4481887 on SNPedia, using a snapshot taken October 16, 2026. SNPedia content is shared under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US, and this page is shared under the same license.

SNPedia is a community-edited wiki. Its entries can be incomplete, out of date or wrong, and nothing here is a diagnosis or medical advice. Magnitude is a community rating of how interesting a genotype is, not a risk score.