I’m sure in future years all of the major sports will develop some kind of genetic screening for prospects, but in this instance I think it’s a waste of time. Measuring muscle performance is actually one of the simplest and most objective things in any scouting report, whether through sprint times, fastball speed, or power. I think the real value of genetic testing for a franchise will come in the intangibles: polymorphisms correlating with ‘grace under pressure’ (cortisol receptors, etc.), coachability, response/resistance to injuries, aging well, that sort of thing. Nurture is huge, especially with behavioral traits like response to criticism and learning, but adding some data to those very subjective parts of a scouting report will be a huge advantage for the first team that figures it out. It’s still a ways off, but once they have a ‘$1000 genome’, a lot of the barriers will start to fall.

is that plenty of thoroughly mediocre athletes have had long baseball careers. Baseball generally requires a particular skill (extreme hand-eye coordination for hitters, near-perfect repeatable throwing mechanics for pitchers) as a gateway. If you don’t have that, no amount of general athleticism will avail you anything… and if you do, you may be able to skate on less than perfect tools.

Firstly, how is this any more “exact” than vertical jump tests, counter movement jump tests, 10 yard, 40 yard sprint tests, standing long jump tests, etc? Forget athletic performance, there are far more factors to maximal force production than just muscle fiber isoform type.

There are neural factors to consider. This test won’t determine an individual’s genetic ability with regards to rate coding, motor unit recruitment, synchronisation of motor units.

The nervous system uses 3 options for varying intra muscular force production. Basically,
-recruitment : the order in which motor units are recruited. “Normal” / untrained people cannot recruit all their FT motor units.
-rate coding: the firing rate of motor units
-synchronisation: activation of motor units in a synchronised manner, instead of in an asynchronised manner, as in “normal” people.

Whereas tests like CMJ, VJ, standing long jump to include the various neural factors, the gene tests does not.

Asides from this, baseball players are not runners. This test will not determine a person’s motor learning / pattern learning ability.

Here is a link to a more thorough article describing this test, instead of some company website:

This is the second gene to be shown to confer athletic ability. The first, angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE, makes an enzyme which influences how efficiently our muscles burn oxygen, and the rate at which some muscles grow (New Scientist print edition, 23 May 1998).

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However, this interpretation is disputed by Montgomery, whose team at University College London discovered ACE and now says it has unpublished evidence pointing to a third gene that predisposes for enhanced ph

ACE also has a direct impact on musculature, Montgomery says, because it influences whether “fast” or “slow” muscle fibres are laid down. And like ACTN3, ACE comes in two main inherited forms: the I form that favours endurance and the D form that favours sprinting.

Montgomery dismisses the notion that talent scouts could genetically screen for future elite athletes. “It’s very unlikely there will be one gene that is a major indicator of performance.” He says many factors influence sporting success, including body size, fibre type, metabolic efficiency, lung volume, psychological make-up and sheer application. “It’s easier to go out with scouts and choose kids who are performing well.”

Members of North’s team accept there is something in this. "Being an elite athlete is not entirely dependent on ACTN3. It is still highly contentious whether we can use genetic markers to predict performance at all.

Finally, I don’t understand the focus on muscle fibre isoform types. There are many many factors involved in athletic performance. Why is it that muscle fibre isoform types seem to get so much attention among some?

a copy of Gattaca on I-tunes…

of yore are soon to be upon us.

Just think, soon we can all spit in a cup for our insurance companies, that way we can all save money by not insuring the genetically fallible among us. Employers can screen their employee’s for any undesirable traits. Universities can recruit only the talent with the best chance of showering the school with academic glory.

I can hardly wait.