ABSTRACT
The genetic basis for athletic performance and response to exercise training has become a topic of great interest. This chapter summarizes the findings on genetics and sport performance and discusses some of the current research efforts that are undergoing to further characterize “exercise genes.” From the candidate gene approach, the large-scale screening of millions of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and their association with exercise-related traits in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has greatly advanced the field. With advances in microarray-based high-throughput technologies, screening hundreds of thousands, and even millions of SNPs simultaneously has been made possible. The GWAS approach is an unbiased, hypothesis-free design that has led to substantial progress in the field of disease genetics and in the field of sport performance. Perhaps the epigenetic response to exercise training will help scientists understand changes in gene function that cannot be explained by changes in DNA sequences.
