Genetics of Fitness and Physical Performance

Genetics of Fitness and Physical Performance is the first comprehensive reference on the role of the genes in influencing individual variation in fitness and performance.

This essential compendium reviews the past 25 years of accumulated evidence on the genetic basis of health- and performance-related fitness phenotypes. Focusing on the interests of sport scientists, the authors provide insight into the significance of this research on nearly every aspect of the study of human physical activity.

The book presents the biological basis of heredity and explains the concepts and methods of genetic epidemiology and molecular biology that are necessary to understand this specialized field. With the rapid advances in molecular biology and the paradigms of human genetics, exercise scientists face a dynamic and vibrant new field. This book offers readers new opportunities to better understand atherosclerosis, noninsulin dependent diabetes, obesity, and hypertension by searching for single gene effects and identifying susceptibility genes.

The authors review the evidence on the role of the genes for human traits as it pertains to the exercise science field. And they explore the scientific, practical, and ethical issues that confront exercise scientists as progress is made in this field.

Genetics of Fitness and Physical Performance is vital reading for scholars in the field of exercise and sport science to understand how recent discoveries in genetics might shape their future research.

Claude Bouchard, one of the world's leaders in the study of genetics and physical activity, is professor of exercise physiology and director of the Biology of Physical Activity Research Group at Université Laval in Sainte Foy, Quebec. He has an MSc in exercise physiology and a PhD in anthropological genetics.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Bouchard's research has focused on the genetic and molecular basis of human variation in body composition, physical fitness, and performance. This research has been supported by the Medical Research Council of Canada and other Canadian granting agencies as well as the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Bouchard has authored or coauthored several books, including Growth, Maturation, and Physical Activity, and has published more than 500 professional and scientific papers. He received the Canadian Atherosclerosis Society Sandoz Award in 1996 at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada meeting. In 1997 Dr. Bouchard gave the J.B. Wolffe Lecture at American College of Sports Medicine Clinic meeting in Denver.

Dr. Bouchard is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Society of Human Genetics. He recently has been elected as a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.

Robert M. Malina is professor of physical education and exercise science at Michigan State University and director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports. Before assuming his position at MSU, Dr. Malina was professor of kinesiology and anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin for 28 years. He has a PhD in both physical education and physical anthropology and has done extensive research on the growth, maturation, and performance of children and youth in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Malina has served as president of the Human Biology Council and the American Academy of Physical Education, editor of the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, and section editor for growth and development for the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and the Exercise and Sport Sciences Review. He is editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Human Biology. Dr. Malina is coauthor of the book, Growth, Maturation, and Physical Activity, and has published more than 300 professional and scientific papers.

In 1989, Dr. Malina was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Institute of Physical Education, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Human Biology Council, and an elected foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Louis Pérusse is research scholar and associate professor in the Department of Physical Education at Université Laval in Sainte Foy, Quebec. He has an MSc and PhD in physical activity sciences from Université Laval. He has also completed postdoctoral work in human genetics at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Dr. Pérusse's research has focused on the genetic epidemiology of various determinants of physical fitness. He has published his findings in more than 75 scholarly journals and books, including several papers on the role of genes on body composition and blood pressure.

Dr. Pérusse is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Society of Human Genetics.