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Collin GreenlandAug 15th, 2008 - 22:32:47
Wow!
This is fascinating if true and should be empirically verified in order solve the mystery of our atheletc prowess. My explanation however is that the answer lies in a combination of reasons; somewhere in our african ancestry, added to that our historical / cultural background, then finally polished by our unmatched high school tradition of intense atheletic competion as occurs annually at Boys and Girls champs.
The role of the ACTN3 gene (mistakenly called 'Actinen A' in a lot of the media reports on this) in Jamaican sprinting success has been dramatically overstated.In fact, while 98% of Jamaicans have at least one working copy of this gene, so do 82% of Europeans - in other words, the vast majority of both populations have the gene version compatible with elite sprint performance. The functional version of ACTN3 is also found in many other African populations, including Kenyans - not exactly a group renowned for producing top-level sprinters!
There's a detailed explanation of the facts behind this story at Genetic Future (since links aren't allowed here, Google 'genetic future actn3').
USA
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