ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D gene variants influence performance in elite sprinters: a multi-cohort study

  • Ioannis D. Papadimitriou
  • , Alejandro Lucia
  • , Yannis Pitsiladis
  • , Vladimir P. Pushkarev
  • , Dmitry A. Dyatlov
  • , Evgeniy F. Orekhov
  • , Guilherme G. Artioli
  • , João Paulo F.L. Guilherme
  • , Antonio H. Lancha Jr
  • , Valentina Ginevičienė
  • , Pawel Cieszczyk
  • , Agnieszka Maciejewska-Karlowska
  • , Marek Sawczuk
  • , Carlos A. Muniesa
  • , Anastasia Kouvatsi
  • , Myosotis Massidda
  • , Carla Maria Calò
  • , Fleur C. Garton
  • , Peter J. Houweling
  • , Guan Wang
  • K. Austin, Anastasiya M. Druzhevskaya, Irina V. Astratenkova, I.I. Ahmetov, David J. Bishop, Kathryn N. North, Nir Eynon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: To date, studies investigating the association between ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D gene variants and elite sprint/power performance have been limited by small cohorts from mixed sport disciplines, without quantitative measures of performance. Aim: To examine the association between these variants and sprint time in elite athletes. Methods: We collected a total of 555 best personal 100-, 200-, and 400-m times of 346 elite sprinters in a large cohort of elite Caucasian or African origin sprinters from 10 different countries. Sprinters were genotyped for ACTN3 R577X and ACE ID variants. Results: On average, male Caucasian sprinters with the ACTN3 577RR or the ACE DD genotype had faster best 200-m sprint time than their 577XX (21.19±0.53s vs. 21.86±0.54s, p=0.016) and ACE II (21.33±0.56 vs. 21.93±0.67 sec, p=0.004) counterparts and only one case of ACE II, and no cases of ACTN3 577XX, had a faster 200-m time than the 2012 London Olympics qualifying (vs. 12 qualified sprinters with 577RR or 577RX genotype). Caucasian sprinters with the ACE DD genotype had faster best 400-m sprint time than their ACE II counterparts (46.94±1.19s vs. 48.50±1.07s, p=0.003). Using genetic models we found that the ACTN3 577R allele and ACE D allele dominant model account for 0.92% and 1.48% of sprint time variance, respectively. Conclusions: Despite sprint performance relying on many gene variants and environment, the % sprint time variance explained by ACE and ACTN3 is substantial at the elite level and might be the difference between a world record and only making the final.
Original languageEnglish
Article number285
Pages (from-to)1-8
Number of pages8
JournalBMC Genomics
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Apr 2016

Bibliographical note

© 2016 Papadimitriou et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Keywords

  • ACTN3
  • ACE
  • Genomics
  • Athletic performance
  • Exercise
  • Athletes
  • Sprint

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D gene variants influence performance in elite sprinters: a multi-cohort study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this