Evaluation of the relationship between actn3 R577X polymorphism and anaerobic power capabilities of ultimate frisbee players

Ultimate Frisbee (Ultimate) is identified as limited contact, fast-paced, mixed –both male and female players competing together– a team sport. Players do running, cutting, guarding, jumping, throwing, catching, laying out during the game. Ultimate comprises an enormous amount of both low and high level running, which can cause exhaustion during or after a competition. Consequently, the capacity to execute high-intensity sprinting might have an extremely important role in an individual's competition performance. The main aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between R577X polymorphism of the ACTN3 gene and the anaerobic power capabilities of Ultimate Frisbee players. The study involved 30 volunteer athletes (21M, 9F; 21,03±2,04 years) from Yeditepe University Ultimate Frisbee Team and 30 volunteer controls (19M, 11F; 22,17±1,39 years). To determine the anaerobic power, four tests were used: Vertical Jump Test, Running-based Anaerobic Sprint Test (RAST), Triple Hop for Distance and Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Test. Genotyping of groups was determined by using real-time PCR, and the statistical analysis of the data was performed by the SPSS v23.0 program. According to our results, the RR genotype was determined in 12 (40%), RX genotype in 13 (43%) XX genotype in 5 (17%) Ultimate Frisbee players. In the control group, genotype distributions were determined 12 (40%), 11 (37%), and 7 (23%) respectively. In terms of anaerobic test outputs, there was a moderate to a strong correlation between vertical jump performances and sprint times of both Ultimate players group (r= 0.366 - 0.709; p<0.05) and the control group (r=0.548 - 0.835; p<0.05). According to the RAST results, the Fatigue Index (FI) was observed statistically different between Ultimate players and the control group (p = 0.012, 6.02 ± 3.52 watts/sec in the study group; 4.17 ± 1.71 watts/sec in the control group). Our results contradict previous studies in which athletes with the RR and RX genotype in the R577X polymorphism of the ACTN3 gene had higher anaerobic performance values. Nevertheless, we think that future studies should be studied with larger samples. Key Words: ACTN3, anaerobic performance, athletic performance, Ultimate Frisbee