Genome-wide association study identifies three novel genetic markers associated with elite endurance performance

INTRODUCTIONIt has long been recognized that the interindividual variability of aerobic performance and the ability to become an elite endurance athlete have a strong genetic basis. A large body of evidence suggests that genetic markers may explain, in part, an interindividual vari-ability of aerobic performance characteristics in response to endurance training [1-4]. With genotyping becoming widely available, a large number of genetic studies evaluating candidate gene variants have been published with largely unconfirmed associations with elite ath-lete status [5,6]. Case-control studies remain the most common study design in genomics of aerobic capacity and endurance and generally involve determining whether one allele of a DNA sequence (gene or non-coding region of DNA) is more common in a group of elite endurance athletes than it is in the general population, thus implying that the allele boosts performance [7–10]. To avoid false-positive results case-control studies should have at least one replication with additional athletic and non-athletic cohorts from different populations [6, 11,12].