ACE DD Genotype is Unfavorable to Korean Short-Term Muscle Power Athletes

The purpose of this study was to test the hypoth- esis that the ACE DD genotype is unfavorably associated with the ultimate power-oriented performance. To test the hypothesis we recruited a total of 848 subjects including 55 international level power-oriented athletes (High-perform- ance), 100 national level power-oriented athletes (Mid-performance) and 693 healthy controls (Control) in Korea. Then the distributions of ACE polymorphism throughout these groups were analyzed. As a result, there was a gradual decrease of frequencies of the DD genotype with advancing levels of performance (Control vs. Mid-performance vs. High-performance = 17.2 % vs. 10.0 % vs. 5.5 % , p = 0.002). Also, the frequencies of D allele decreased gradually with advancing levels of performance (Control vs. Mid-perform- ance vs. High-performance = 42.6 % vs. 35.0 % vs. 30.9 % , p < 0.01). Therefore, power-oriented ath- letes at the top level had a markedly diminished frequency of the DD genotype and the D allele. This fi nding gave 3.83 times lower probability of success in power-oriented sports for individu- als with the DD genotype than those with the II + ID genotype. In conclusion, these results indi- cate that Korean power-oriented athletes with a lower frequency of the DD genotype had a lower probability of success in power-oriented sports.