Endurance is one of the components of physical fitness, along with flexibility, speed, body composition and muscular strength.1
What is endurance?
You may have heard about muscular endurance and aerobic endurance. In fact, both of these terms can get confusing sometimes. Hence, to differentiate:
Thus, endurance or endurance capacity is one of the traits that could influence someone’s physical fitness. This also includes influencing an athlete’s sports performance according to their sports requirement.1
For instance, triathlon athletes require a good amount of aerobic endurance to ensure that they can continue to run over a long distance.
On the other hand, rowers need excellent muscular endurance since they have to keep repeating the same movement against the water resistance during their race.1
The ‘endurance’ gene
Interestingly, genetic and sports performance has been studied since back then. The gene that has been widely identified as an ‘endurance gene’ is the angiotensin-1 converting enzyme gene or the ACE gene.2
The mechanism of the ACE gene is that it is involved in the control of blood pressure3 through the conversion of the protein hormones and the inactivation of the inflammatory mediator. The presence of the protein hormone and the inactivation of the inflammatory mediator results in the constriction of blood vessels, thus having less blood flow to the muscles.4
On the other hand, when the ACE gene activity is low, it will result in less constriction and more dilation of the blood vessels. This simply means that more oxygen and nutrients can be carried in the blood to the working muscles.
Here’s a friendly reminder: the cardiac muscle makes up the heart, while skeletal muscle makes up the muscles. Thus, oxygen is important for these muscles!
Studies on the ‘endurance’ gene
Genetically, a person with ACE gene will either have the I/I type, I/D type or the D/D type.5
- I/I Type: Insertion/Insertion
- I/D Type: Insertion/Deletion
- D/D Type: Deletion/Deletion
Studies on the association between ACE gene and endurance performance among athletes has found that:
1. The I/I type has been consistently associated with improvements in endurance performance6,7,8 and medium duration of aerobic endurance performance.6,9
2. Runners with the I/I type ran a longer distance compared to the runners with the I/D and D/D type.10
3. Compared to non-athletes among the Poland population, rowers have been found to have more I allele suggesting a positive association with endurance performance.8
4. While I allele has been associated with endurance orientated events, the D/D type has been associated with strength or power orientated events.6
To simply put, it seems that having I allele or possessing the I/I type for the ACE gene would mean to have an excellent endurance capacity among athletes due to the low ACE gene activity.4
Genetic testing and your endurance
Whether you are an athlete or not, if you are curious whether you might have an excellent aerobic and muscular endurance capacity, you can find out with our DNA Explorer Essential today!
References:
1. Pearson Schools and FE Colleges. Aerobic endurance [Ebook]. Retrieved 17 March 2020, from https://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/FEAndVocational/Sport/BTEC/BTEC-Firsts-Sport-2012/Samples/BTECRevisionGuideandWorkbook/Revise-BTEC-Sport-Revision-Guide.pdf.
2. Yang, J. (2019). Genetically Tailored Sports and Nutrition Actions to Improve Health. Health Information Science, 279-286. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32962-4_25
3. Grealy, R., Herruer, J., Smith, C., Hiller, D., Haseler, L., & Griffiths, L. (2015). Evaluation of a 7-Gene Genetic Profile for Athletic Endurance Phenotype in Ironman Championship Triathletes. PLOS ONE, 10(12), e0145171. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145171
4. Hadi, I., Rosyanti, L., & Patelongi, I. (2019). Genetic Variation of I/D Enzyme Converting Angiotensin (ACE) with Athlete Muscle Resistance. Health Notions, 3(3), 143-148. https://doi.org/10.33846/hn30306
5. Li, X., Ooi, F., Zilfalil, B., & Yusoff, S. (2016). The influence of angiotensin-converting enzyme gene ID polymorphism on human physical fitness performance in European and other populations. Sport Sciences For Health, 13(3), 495-506. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-016-0340-7
6. Guth, L. M., & Roth, S. M. (2013). Genetic influence on athletic performance. Current opinion in pediatrics, 25(6), 653–658. https://doi.org/10.1097/MOP.0b013e3283659087
7. Jones, A., Montgomery, H., & Woods, D. (2002). Human Performance: A Role for the ACE Genotype?. Exercise And Sport Sciences Reviews, 30(4), 184-190. https://doi.org/10.1097/00003677-200210000-00008
8. Ma, F., Yang, Y., Li, X., Zhou, F., Gao, C., Li, M., & Gao, L. (2013). The association of sport performance with ACE and ACTN3 genetic polymorphisms: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS one, 8(1), e54685. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0054685
9. Cam, S., Colakoglu, M., Colakoglu, S., Sekuri, C., & Berdeli, A. (2006). ACE I/D gene polymorphism and aerobic endurance development in response to training in a non-elite female cohort. Scandinavian Journal Of Medicine And Science In Sports, 0(0), 061120070736017-???. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2006.00590.x
10. Voroshin, I., & Astratenkova, I. (2008). Dependence of endurance performance on ACE gene polymorphism in athletes. Human Physiology, 34(1), 117-119. https://doi.org/10.1134/s0362119708010180
