Genetic differentiation in East African ethnicities and its relationship with endurance running success

• Autor(a) principal: Zani, André Luis da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Gouveia, Mateus Henrique, Aquino, Marla, Carvalho, Rodrigo Quevedo, Menezes, Rodrigo Leal de, Rotimi, Charles, Lwande, Gerald Omondi, Ouma, Collins, Mekonnen, Ephrem, Fagundes, Nelson Jurandi Rosa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/274357
• topic: Arquitetura genética; Corrida de longa distância; Antropometria; Metabolismo energético; GWAS studies; Calcium homeostasis

Since the 1960s, East African athletes, mainly from Kenya and Ethiopia, have dominated long-distance running events in both the male and female categories. Further demographic studies have shown that two ethnic groups are overrepresented among elite endurance runners in each of these countries: the Kalenjin, from Kenya, and the Oromo, from Ethiopia, raising the possibility that this dominance results from genetic or/and cultural factors. However, looking at the life history of these athletes or at loci previously associated with endurance athletic performance, no compelling explanation has emerged. Here, we used a population approach to identify peaks of genetic differentiation for these two ethnicities and compared the list of genes close to these regions with a list, manually curated by us, of genes that have been associated with traits possibly relevant to endurance running in GWAS studies, and found a significant enrichment in both populations (Kalenjin, P = 0.048, and Oromo, P = 1.6x10-5). Those traits are mainly related to anthropometry, circulatory and respiratory systems, energy metabolism, and calcium homeostasis. Our results reinforce the notion that endurance running is a systemic activity with a complex genetic architecture, and indicate new candidate genes for future studies. Finally, we argue that a deterministic relationship between genetics and sports must be avoided, as it is both scientifically incorrect and prone to reinforcing population (racial) stereotyping.