The role of genetic research in sport

Variation in the Ace Gene in Elite Polish Football Players

Purpose. A common polymorphism in the angiotensin converting enzyme I gene (the ACE I/D variant) represents one of the first characterized and the most widely studied genetic variants in the context of elite athletes status and performance related traits. The aim of the study was to determine the genotype and allele distribution of the allele and genotype of the ACE gene in Polish male football players. Methods. The total of 106 Polish male professional football players were recruited. They were divided into groups according to the position in the field: forwards, defenders, midfielders, and goalkeepers. For controls, samples were prepared with 115 unrelated volunteers. DNA was extracted from the buccal cells donated by the subjects, and the PCR amplification of the polymorphic region of the ACE gene containing either the insertion (I) or deletion (D) fragment was performed. Results. The genotype distribution and allele frequencies among all football players did not differ significantly when compared with sedentary control individuals (p = 0.887, p = 0.999, respectively). Likewise, the analysis of forwards, defenders, midfielders, and goalkeepers revealed no significant differences in either ACE genotype or allele frequencies. Conclusions. We did not provide evidence for difference of variation of the ACE I/D polymorphism between Polish football players and controls, as we did not obtain any statistically significantly higher frequency of either of the analysed alleles (I and D) or genotypes (DD, ID, and II) in the studied subgroups. It may be suspected that harbouring of I/D allelic variants of the ACE gene neither decreases nor increases the probability of being a professional football player in Poland.

Nature, Nurture, and Expertise

Rather than investigating the extent to which training can improve performance under experimental conditions ('what could be'), we ask about the origins of expertise as it exists in the world ('what is'). We used the twin method to investigate the genetic and environmental origins of exceptional performance in reading, a skill that is a major focus of educational training in the early school years. Selecting reading experts as the top 5% from a sample of 10,000 12-year-olds twins assessed on a battery of reading tests, three findings stand out. First, we found that genetic factors account for more than half of the difference in performance between expert and normal readers. Second, our results suggest that reading expertise is the quantitative extreme of the same genetic and environmental factors that affect reading performance for normal readers. Third, growing up in the same family and attending the same schools account for less than a fifth of the difference between expert and normal readers. We discuss implications and interpretations ('what is inherited is DNA sequence variation'; 'the abnormal is normal'). Finally, although there is no necessary relationship between 'what is' and 'what could be', the most far-reaching issues about the acquisition of expertise lie at the interface between them ('the nature of nurture: from a passive model of imposed environments to an active model of shaped experience').