Could your child be the next David Beckham, Rebecca Adlington or Chris Hoy?
What if you could find out well before he or she first kicks a ball, learns
to swim or rides a bike; or even before your little one takes his or her
first steps? Well, thanks to scientists-cum-crystal ball gazers, perhaps you
can. In America, performance-obsessed parents are clamouring to get their
hands on a new test that will confirm how gifted (or not) their children are
in order that they can steer them along an athletic path to which they are
genetically suited. For £100, the Colorado-based company Atlas Sports
Genetics will analyse the DNA of children as young as 1 to help to predict
their prospective sporting prowess.
In a trend that takes obsessive parenting to a new level, two other companies
- CyGene in Florida and Genetic Technologies in Australia - are offering
athletic performance DNA analysis. Britons are among those who have already
been buying them on the internet and private genetic testing clinics are
preparing to launch similar services here. “Certainly some companies,
including my own, are looking at sports-potential testing,” says Brian
Whitley, managing director of the GeneticHealth clinic in Harley Street,
Central London. “In our practice we would never test on anyone under 18 and
at the moment I am sceptical about the clinical data supporting the athletic
tests that are available. But I'm sure there'll be one based in this country
within the next year.”
Costing just under £50, the Australian kits are proving such a hit that they
are being distributed in gyms and health clubs in Melbourne and other
cities, sold to adults as a training aid that will help them to pinpoint
their fitness strengths and weaknesses.
The procedure for each of the commercial genetic performance analyses is
straightforward. All that is required is a swab taken from inside the
child's cheek and along the gums to obtain sufficient DNA. Sealed in a
sterile bag, the sample is returned to the appropriate company's
laboratories for analysis. Results are usually dispatched within 10-15 days
and, in the case of Atlas, arrive with a certificate detailing “Your Genetic
Advantage”. In theory, they summarise all you need to know about
physiological strengths and suitability for certain sports.
Those who market the tests are keen to point out that the genetic profiles
they produce are intended only as a guide for parents, not as a green light
to push their child into competitive sport before he or she may be ready.
Aware of the potential for misuse, Kevin Reilly, president of Atlas Sports
Genetics, says that he worries about parents “who get back results that
don't match the expectations they have for their child”. Meanwhile, though,
Professor Deon Venter, chief pathologist for Genetic Technologies and a
former winner of the British ironman triathlon championship, says that he
has performed the test on himself and on his own children. He defends this
controversial decision by claiming that it is “not a test that says you are
going to be a winner or a loser, it is just piece No 1 in the jigsaw puzzle
of sports performance”.
For many others, the lure of knowing whether there is potentially lucrative
sporting success in the family is proving too powerful. Available on the
internet to anyone with a credit card, the Atlas Sports and Genetic
Technologies tests evaluate only one gene, ACTN3 - one of more than 20,000
in the human genome - the relevance of which was discovered six years ago by
scientists at the University of Sydney, who worked in collaboration with the
Australian Institute of Sport. In their study of 429 athletes in 14 sports,
including 50 Olympians, the researchers looked at combinations of ACTN3 to
determine whether they made someone better at speed and power-based sports,
such as football and sprinting, or endurance-based activities such as
cycling and marathon running.
As with other genes, a copy of ACTN3 is provided by each parent and those with
the “normal” variation, ie, two the same, produce a protein called
alpha-actinin-3 that is found in “fast twitch muscles”, the type
predominantly used to make rapid, powerful movements. But some people have a
variation called R577X that prevents production of alpha-actinin-3 and
effectively slows them down, making them more suited to longer-duration
sports.
In the Australian findings, participants in sprint and power events were more
likely than average Australians to have two copies of ACTN3, while no elite
female sprinter had two copies of the R577X variant. Among endurance
athletes, nearly one quarter of elite long-distance runners had two copies
of R577X. The results led to ACTN3 becoming known as the “speed gene” and
prompted other studies that have proven that elite athletes possess them in
certain combinations. In 2008, Professor Alejandro Lucia, from the European
University of Madrid, published findings in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine that showed that top professional footballers tend to have
similar combinations of the ACTN3 gene.
But does the discovery of a champion gene make you a winner? At a meeting of
the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES), experts in
the field expressed scepticism about the accuracy and usefulness of the
genetic sports tests now being marketed. “I really don't think the genetic
sports performance tests that are on sale at the moment do what they are
supposed to do,” says Dr Alun Williams, a physiologist in the department of
exercise and sports science at Manchester Metropolitan University and a
member of the BASES investigative panel. “Research into this area is in its
infancy and it is thought that there are maybe a couple of dozen genes that
have implications for sports performance. A bit of information provided on
just one gene, the ACTN3, doesn't tell you much.” Williams says that the
CyGene test that analyses six genetic variations probably comes closer than
any to providing clues to someone's abilities, but it will not identify a
potential Olympic champion. “However,” he says, “with more studies emerging
all the time we may not be too far from the point when that is possible.”
In a position statement on the subject, the BASES group says that while
genetic research into athletic ability “should be encouraged for its
potential benefits in both sport and public health”, there were many
concerns, ethical and otherwise, about the procedures. At Atlas Sports
Genetics, for instance, the focus is on testing children aged between 1 and
8, when physical performance and fitness tests are inappropriate. “There is
a major ethical issue about testing children,” Williams says. “Adults who
take these tests do so knowing the potential outcome and are emotionally
equipped to deal with the results. I don't have a problem with consenting
grown-ups using them. But children are not aware of the implications and are
not able to make the same decisions and choices.”
There is also a risk that DNA performance tests may uncover an increased risk
of disease. “It is possible that a sport gene test could inadvertently
uncover a link with diseases such as cancer,” Williams says. “Not everyone
would want to live their early years knowing that they are more likely to
suffer from cancer by the time they are in their forties.”
Ultimately, of course, athletic performance is about much more than one gene.
Kevin Reilly considers genotyping to be simply a means of helping athletes
tailor their strategies to their aptitudes. “This is a tool,
not the tool,” he says. “If parents are relying on genetic testing as
the only performance indicator to tell whether they will do good or bad in
sports they are going to be disappointed because it is not for that
purpose.”
But even that does not sit easily with my parental instinct, which is to
expose my three-year-old to the diversities of life, including sport, in the
hope that he will choose to pursue hobbies that he is good at, but mostly
that he enjoys. Could I be trusted to do that if I was armed with results
from a gene test that may suggest that he is steered towards a specific
activity? I am not so sure.
All in the genes
The ACTN3 gene instructs our bodies to produce a specific muscle protein
called alpha-actinin-3, which contributes to the muscles' ability to
generate forceful, repetitive contractions
Depending on ethnicity, 20 to 50 per cent of people have a variant of the gene
R577X, which prevents the ACTN3 gene from producing the muscle protein
Generally, African-Americans have the lowest incidence of the mutation, while
Asians have the highest
Athletes with the R577X variant in both copies of the ACTN3 gene (from both of
their parents) may have a natural predisposition for endurance sports, such
as distance running, distance swimming and cross-country skiing
Athletes with the R577X variant in only one copy of their ACTN3 gene may be
suited to sports requiring both endurance and speed, such as basketball,
tennis, volleyball and cycling
Athletes who do not carry the variant in either copy of the ACTN3 gene may
have a natural predisposition for speed or power sports such as football,
weightlifting and sprinting
Sources: Atlas Sports Genetics; Genetic Technologies
