Association between MCT1 T1470A polymorphism and climbing status in Polish and Japanese climbers

• Published in: Biology of sport 2021-01, Vol.38 (2), p.229-234
• Main Authors: Saito, Mika, Ginszt, Michał, Massidda, Myosotis, Cięszczyk, Paweł, Okamoto, Takanobu, Majcher, Piotr, Nakazato, Koichi, Kikuchi, Naoki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: climbers; genotype; mct1; Original Paper; sports climbing; t1470a polymorphism
• ISSN: 0860-021X; 2083-1862
• DOI: 10.5114/biolsport.2020.98624

Sport climbing will become an official event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; it is a popular wilderness sport among athletes and amateurs. Our previous study suggested that the T1470A polymorphism (rs1049434) of the monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1) gene is associated with athletic performance and physiological phenotypes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of MCT1 T1470A polymorphism in Polish and Japanese climbers using a case-control study. Our sample consisted of 226 climbers (Japanese: n = 100, 64 male and 36 female; Polish: n = 126, 97 male and 29 female) and 1028 non-athletic controls (Japanese, n = 407; Polish = 621) who were genotyped for the MCT1 T1470A polymorphism (rs1049434) using the TaqMan SNP genotyping assay or restriction enzyme. The frequency of the TT genotype and T allele was significantly higher in climbers than in controls among the Polish subjects (genotype: p = 0.030, allele: p = 0.010); however, there were no significant differences in the genotype and allelic frequencies between the Japanese climbers and controls (genotype: p = 0.968; allele: p = 0.803). Our results suggested that the frequency of the T allele (TT+TA genotype) in the MCT1 T1470A polymorphism is over-represented in Polish climbers but not in Japanese climbers. In addition, the frequency of the T allele and TT genotype in Polish lead climbers is higher than that in controls.