This casting and crew advertisement calls for Black actors and Russian directors to create a groundbreaking film about African American and Black Russian immigrant experiences.Call for Talent and Crew: Bridges Across BordersThe VisionThe Story: We are making a new feature film. It explores the lives of Black immigrants in the United States and Russia.The Goal: We want to show shared struggles, cultural surprises, and human connection.The Collaboration: Russian directors will co-create this project. They bring a unique Eastern European cinematic eye to a classic African American and Black diaspora story.How It Should Feel: Honest, raw, beautiful, and deep. It bridges two different worlds through the power of film.Who We Are Looking ForAfrican American Actors: To play lead and supporting roles showing the immigrant or expatriate journey in Russia or the US.Black Russian Actors: To bring authentic local perspective, language, and lived experience to the screen.Russian Directors & Crew: To lead the creative vision with a style that honors both Russian art-house traditions and American narrative pacing.Join the ProjectAuditions: Open now for virtual and in-person tryouts in New York and Moscow.Crew Submissions: Directors and cinematographers can send their portfolios.Contact: Send your reel and resume to our production team to be part of this history-making cross-cultural film.If you want to customize this ad, tell me:What is the genre (drama, comedy, thriller)?Do you have a specific title or email/contact to add?Should it focus more on the US side or the Russian side? As far as we know, genetics in sports is a rapidly growing science field, due to new technologies and the cost decrease of such investigations. Onwards, genetic predispositions, besides the relations between the biological and chronological age play one of the main roles in talent identification processes. Utilization of such analyses in practice is unfortunately insignificant, perhaps because of the complexity of the genome and genotype-phenotype interrelations. Therefore, the aim of this investigation is to collect all relevant data about gene research in taekwondo. The authors tracked appropriate articles through three databases: Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar. A number of n=11 appropriate articles were found. Results suggest there is evidence that several genes may highly impact taekwondo performance, including ACE I/D, ACTN3, IGF-1, while the GABPb1, HSP90AA1 & HSP90AB1 and mtDNA haplogroups M, N9 and J have the moderate overall impact. Still, there are challenges in genetic testing of young athletes, of methodological and ethical nature, which should be avoided with a professional staff and correct approach towards such testings. Significant scores of listed genes shed a light towards the clarification of possible genetic impact on taekwondo success. Accordingly, the authors have established precise guidelines for future examination of genetics in taekwondo. This work presents the current knowledge about genetic examinations regarding taekwondo. Keywords: genetics, sport success, genome, phenotype, sport performance __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Corresponding author: Matej Babić, email: matej.babic1996@gmail.com www.physactiv.eu Recevied: 08.03.2023; Accepted: 17.03.2023; Published online: 05.04.2023 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Citation: Babic M, Kezic A, Cular D. The Future of Genetic Testing in Taekwondo: Opportunities and Challenges. Phys Act Rev 2023; 11(2): 21-33. doi: 10.16926/par.2023.11.18 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Submitted for possible op en access publication under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attributi on (CC BY) license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Physical Activity Review, vol. 10(2), 2023 www.physactiv.eu _____________________________________________________________________________________ 22 INTRODUCTION Human genome in the context of sports performance surely plays a significant role. On the one hand, an idea about genetic testing in sports is unfortunately and mostly still an idea or theoretical solution, with insignificant and limited practical impact at the present. On the other hand, there is growing evidence base about the influence of certain polymorphs on sports performance. As applied molecular knowledge within sports sciences advances, the field of genetics became very popular with the claims that specific genes encompass associations of polymorphisms with sports performance, directing athletes to specialties according to their ability, developing methodologies for early detection of talents, and individualization of training for performance enhancement and injury prevention [1,2]. Moreover, nearly 200 genetic polymorphisms have been found to influence sports performance traits, and over 20 polymorphisms may condition the status of the elite athlete [3]. Further, early twin and family studies suggest that genetics accounts for between 30–80% of the variance in human athletic performance [4-8]. The physical performance phenotypes for which a genetic basis can be suspected include endurance capacity, muscle performance, determinants of tendon–ligament apparatus and physiological response to training. Consistent with the previous classification, the phenotypes of health-related fitness retained are grouped under additional categories, including cardiovascular (exercise heart rate, blood pressure and heart morphology), metabolism, anthropometry and body composition [9]. As genetic research recently became widely available and investigations concerning taekwondo became more extensive, the number of published gene-related studies within taekwondo has grown. There is one existing review featuring martial arts and related genetic research until 2021 [10], but soever, martial arts can widely differ concerning their different combat patterns and primary energy system contribution [11]. 21st-century World Taekwondo (WT) competitions demand extraordinary overall psycho-physical features, and growing knowledge about the genetic conditionality of valuable traits will surely enable precise instructions and programming of training and diet for taekwondo competitors. Secondly, it will strengthen a path toward utilization of such analyzes within talent identification processes, and therefore enhance the quality of selected processes. Accordingly to the previous statements, the aim of this investigation is to comprehend all relevant literature and evidence about genetic testing and its current usage in taekwondo. MATERIAL AND METHODS Search Strategy and Data Source This narrative review is conducted in accordance with the guidelines for narrative biomedical reviews [12]. In the first phase, authors defined certain preconditions and keywords for the filtration of research papers according to the topic. Defined inclusion criteria were the following: published in English, open access papers/full-text papers, include empirical evidence and information about genetic research in terms of competitive taekwondo and/or include taekwondo athletes in their sample, correctly used research methodology, concern the success-related traits, and feature healthy participants. The authors selected three topic-relevant databases for the extraction of papers: Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar. Further, Boolean operators [13] and specific keywords were used in search browsers are the following: 1) taekwondo AND: gene, genetics, genotype, genome, haplotype, haplogroup, polymorphism, SNP; 2) combat sport AND: gene, genetics, genotype, genome, haplotype, haplogroup, polymorphism, SNP.
Physical Activity Review, vol. 10(2), 2023 www.physactiv.eu _____________________________________________________________________________________ 23 Study selection and Data Extraction In the second phase, researchers independently searched for papers to suit the selected inclusion criteria. Retrieved relevant papers were manually downloaded in separate folders, and folders of all authors were fused together, separately by a database. Duplicate papers were deleted, and all papers were evaluated and filtrated again by the authors. Finally, after the application of all previously listed methods, 11 scientific papers were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS Angiotensin-converting enzyme (insertion/deletion) (ACE I/D) In the context of taekwondo, first investigation of ACE I/D polymorphism was conducted in 2010 [14] where authors compared frequencies of genotypes within ACE I/D polymorphism between subsamples of 49 sedentary people and 18 Turkish and Azerbaijan national team members. Analysis of frequencies showed no significant difference between national teams and the sedentary group, and ID heterozygous proved to be most frequent (54.50%). While the Turkish national members had the greatest proportion of ID genotype (75%), Azerbaijan team members had the greatest score of DD genotype (50%). As we know, I allele is associated with endurance performance [24-28], while the D allele is associated with power performance [29-31], which was also confirmed in review by Youn et al. in 2021 [10], based on research of Japanese wrestlers [31]. Further, Shahmoharadi et al. [16] investigated frequencies of the ACE gene II, ID, and DD genotypes between subgroups of Iranian elite athletes (taekwondo athletes belonged to mixed group n=32) and between athletes and control group. Mixed group had slightly higher proportion of I allele (53.13%), power-oriented athletes had equal amounts of I and D allele (50/50%), while endurance athletes had a greater proportion of D allele (63.51%). Also, athletes overall were confirmed to have greater proportions of I allele (47.44%) compared to controls (38.96%). Speaking of genotype, the most frequent among the mixed and power-oriented subgroups is ID heterozygous, while endurance athletes have DD homozygous as most represented. Results fr om these two papers reveal the similar distribution of II, ID, DD genotypes between samples and distribution in the Caucasian population, which are roughly 25%, 50%, and 25% respectively [32]. Similar frequencies were observed (II= 18%; ID= 45%; DD= 36%) by Elsawy & Shaban [17], who investigated ACE I/D genotype frequencies among n=11 Egyptian female national team members. Mentioned authors also conducted evaluations of strength and power and found no correlation between certain genotypes and selected latent motor dimensions. Furthermore, the latter authors [22] reported no significant difference (p>0.05) between athletes and non-athletes. II genotype frequency had the greatest proportion (49%) and authors also obtained greater I allele frequencies (71%), compared to D allele (29%). It must be highlighted that the last two mentioned papers reported results on Brazilian and Egyptian populations, which are relatively diverse populations in the context of population genetics. Within a genetic research there should always be a clear sample differentiation and detailed description of subjects, especially in terms of origins and their possible impact on research results outcome. D allele perhaps affects performance via an angiotensin II-mediated increase in muscle growth and strength. Conversely, a local increase in muscle efficiency, rather than a central cardiovascular control, contributes to the enhanced endurance associated with the I allele [32]. Genotype scores of this polymorphism were also observed in medicine. Clinical studies revealed a possible relationship of DD genotype with various diseases, such as chronic heart faliure [33], abdominal aortic aneurysm [34], renal diseases [35], type 2 diabetes [36], etc. For now, there are unfortunately still a lot of doubts about this polymorphism and its possible connection with competitive combat performance, due to contrary results of different scientists. Speaking of ACE I/D investigations in the sport overall, there is a certain consensus about the I allele being related to endurance, while the D allele relates to power
Physical Activity Review, vol. 10(2), 2023 www.physactiv.eu _____________________________________________________________________________________ 24 [37]. Therefore, I allele seems to be more beneficial for disciplines that rely on aerobic systems with focus on speed and accuracy (e.g. taekwondo, karate, point fighting, light contact kickboxing;), while the D allele represents power, and is desirable among full contact disciplines wh ere the power plays a main role, such as K-1, boxing, wrestling, etc. Not to confuse, taekwondo is de jure full contact discipline, but certain conditions directed its combat style toward speed and accuracy, while power became a secondary desired trait. So far, it can be concluded that the I allele, or II/ID genotype could be a desirable ACE I/D variant for competitive taekwondo, and possibly the overall health of competitors. α-actinin 3 R577X polymorphism (ACTN3) There is only one research of ACTN3 polymorphism conducted on a sample of taekwondo athletes, an investigation by Jung et al. in 2016 [20]. The purpose of this study was to analyze the possible interaction between ATCN3 gene polymorphism and muscle imbalance in the lower extremities
