Genetic Variants and Mixed Sport Disciplines: A Comparison among Soccer, Combat and Motorcycle Athletes

Background. Soccer, combat sports and motorcycling have all been classified as mixed in terms of their metabolism predominance thus showing a common multifaceted nature of physical requirements, which include aerobic capacity, strength, endurance, power and agility. Objectives. The aim of the current study was to compare allelic and genotype frequencies of four well-known polymorphisms among athletes from different mixed sport disciplines in order to investigate genetic markers suitable for distinguishing the predominant components of these sports. Methods. Genotyping for the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (I/D), α-actinin-3 (ACTN3) R577X, muscle-specific creatine kinase (CK-MM) A/G and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) G/C polymorphisms among 113 professional athletes from motorcycling, soccer and combat sports was performed by PCRRFLP method. Results. We found that the G allele of the PPARα polymorphism was significantly (p < 0.05) more frequent in soccer players than in combat sport athletes or motorcycle riders. In addition, we observed that the genotype frequency of AA of CK-MM (rs8111989) polymorphism in soccer players was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than combat athletes. On the contrary, both ACE I/D and ACTN3 R577X polymorphisms do not enable to distinguish between these disciplines. Conclusions. Our findings indicate that the PPARα polymorphism may be suitable as potential distinguish genetic marker among mixed sport disciplines.