SPORTS PHENOM? Would a simple swab of the cheek reveal whether a tyke is destined for athletic greatness?
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What if sideline rage could be nipped in the bud with a quick genetic test that told Mom and Dad what sports – if any – Junior could master? The Boulder, Colo., company Atlas Sports Genetics today began selling just that sort of product: for $149, it says it will screen for variants of the gene ACTN3, which in elite-level athletes is associated with the presence of the muscle protein alpha-actinin-3. The protein helps muscles contract powerfully at high speeds, which may explain why the combination of ACTN3 variants that produce it has been found in Olympic sprinters.
The company's president, Kevin Reilly, tells ScientificAmerican.com that parents shouldn’t view the test as the final word on whether their child will excel at a particular sport. But, he says, it is more useful than physical tests in determining a child's athletic abilities before age 9.
At that age, "they don’t have the physical maturity and motor skills to do well," Reilly says. "That’s where the genetic test can come in [handy] for looking for early indicators of talent in performance areas.
"It’s a question of their motivation. This is a tool, not the tool," he says of consumers. "If they're relying on the genetic test as the only performance indicator to tell whether they will do good or bad in sports, they're going to be disappointed, because it's not for that purpose. If it’s a tool along with other components, you can use it to select what may be the best sport for you or for a child."
It takes about three weeks to get the results of the saliva test, which looks for three combinations of ACTN3 genes, with a child getting one variant from his mother and one from his father. (Reilly says that the Atlas Genetics screen is the only one commercially available in the U.S. that tests for fitness-related genes.) Kids who have two copies of the X variant from both parents don’t make alpha-actinin-3, and might excel at endurance sports such as cross-country skiing, distance running or swimming, according to the company's Web site. Those with one copy of the X variant and one of the R variant will make some protein, Reilly says, and may excel at endurance or "power" sports such as soccer or cycling. And children with two copies of the R variant will make more alpha-actinin-3, setting them up for possible achievement in power or endurance sports including football, weight-lifting or sprinting.
We asked Stephen Roth, an assistant professor of exercise physiology, aging and genetics at the University of Maryland in College Park, to explain what is and isn’t known about the relationship between DNA and sports performance. Roth is a co-author of the Human Gene Map for Performance and Health-Related Fitness Phenotypes, a catalog of genes associated with sports-related fitness. The map was last published in 2006 in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, a journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. The new edition will be available shortly.
This is an edited transcript.
To what extent do genes determine athletic ability?
Nobody knows the answer for sure and it depends on how specifically you define athletic ability. Most research suggests that genetics contribute significantly to sports performance, but it's very hard to put a number on. It's very hard to quantify football performance, for example. Most studies look at very specific endpoints: how much a gene contributes to muscle strength or maximal aerobic capacity, because those endpoints are very easy to measure from a research standpoint. If you try to parse it out, as much as 50 percent of muscle strength is determined by genetic factors.
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7 Comments
Add CommentWhat will they think of next? When it comes to extracting money from worried parents, theres no shortage of business models. Now the so-called sports gene test for only $149 is finding a market for one reason only: because we parents are under so much pressure these days to make sure our kids succeed. Thats because kids are facing competition everywhere they turn in school, in sports, in music, you name it. One girl I know even had to compete to get into her schools community service program!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll this hyper-competition makes us parents feel like our kids must be the best if theyre going to survive in a dog-eat-dog world. Our evolutionary hardwiring which arose when it was essential for parents to push their kids to compete for food and to stay away from predators reacts to the competition in our childrens world by turning on our fight or flight anxiety. It makes us feel that we have to do whatever we can to help our kids compete and win.
Enter the entrepreneurs willing to help us do that! Enter our criticism of parents for taking that bait. And yet. Lets tease out exactly why we criticize them. Because isnt it perfectly understandable that we want our kids to achieve? Sure. But the problem is that schemes like genetic testing put pressure on the kids to excel. And such pressure backfires. What makes children excel in sports is their love of the game which comes from the fun of playing, the feelings of camaraderie, the pride from acquiring new skills. Their passion motivates them to practice and eventually excel. But pressure from without from anyone, for example, expecting them to live up to the promise of a so-called sports gene is a good way to kill that passion.
Caveat emptor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a new trick to making fool to people.First Iam doubtful about gene can effect all about your life. If gene decide every thing what about intelligent , our passion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think idea about gene`s superiority born from eugenics movement which is deep rooted in western culture.
This is a new trick to making fool to people.First Iam doubtful about gene can effect all about your life. If gene decide every thing what about intelligent , our passion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think idea about gene`s superiority born from eugenics movement which is deep rooted in western culture.
This is a new trick to making fool to people.First Iam doubtful about gene can effect all about your life. If gene decide every thing what about intelligent , our passion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think idea about gene`s superiority born from eugenics movement which is deep rooted in western culture.
This is a new trick to making fool to people.First Iam doubtful about gene can effect all about your life. If gene decide every thing what about intelligent , our passion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think idea about gene`s superiority born from eugenics movement which is deep rooted in western culture.
This is a new trick to making fool to people.First Iam doubtful about gene can effect all about your life. If gene decide every thing what about intelligent , our passion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think idea about gene`s superiority born from eugenics movement which is deep rooted in western culture.