Athletic performance is associated with many environmental factors such as inborn genetic factors, nutrition, psychological factors, and education. We aimed to analyze the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) rs6265 polymorphism, which is an important genetic marker related to psychological factors, in 21 professional female volleyball players and compare it with the control group. Genotyping was assessed by Real-time PCR technique. BDNF rs6265 polymorphism genotypes were calculated as 72% and 28% for GG and GA in volleyball players, respectively. No AA genotype was detected. In the control group, the GG, GA and AA genotype percentages were calculated as 57.8, 36.3 and 5.9, respectively. In the allelic distribution, the percentages in the athlete group were calculated as 86% (36) for the G allele and 14% (6) for the A allele, respectively. In the control group, for the G and A alleles, respectively; it was 76.25% and 23.75%. No statistical significance was found in terms of both genotype distribution (p = 0.407) and allelic frequency distribution (p = 0.218). Our results were in line with data indicating the stress and anxiety-related nature of professional volleyball players. More studies with more athletes and more groups of athletes are needed to understand the effect of these parameters on volleyball players.

Genetic and environmental factors are important determinants of the athletic performance. Sports genetic determines certain the alleles for the identification of the genes that affect athletic performance. Comprehensive researches, including the biology of mental properties are accumulating due to the improvement of the information of molecular biology. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter of the dopaminergic system that affects the athlete mentally and psychologically. In this study, our goal is to determine the genotype and allele distributions of the DRD2 rs180047 polymorphism in the cyclists. 19 cyclists and 52 sedentary individuals (controls) participated in our study. Genotyping was carried out by real time PCR (rt-PCR) after DNA was isolated from buccal epithelial cells. In our cohort, AG and GG genotypes were detected as 6 (32%) and 13 (68%), respectively. In the control group, the respective AA, AG and GG genotypes were detected as 9 (17%), 18 (35%) and 25 (48%). No statistically significant difference was detected in terms of genotype distribution between the two groups (p= 0,1107). When allelic distributions were examined, in athlete cohort. A and G allele numbers were counted as 6 (16%) and 32 (84%), respectively. In the control group, same alleles were count as 36 (35%) and 68 (65%). There was no significant difference in the terms of alleles in our study cohort (p=0,0295). In our cohort, GG genotype and the G allele of the DRD2 rs1800497 polymorphism were dominant. Recent studies showed the association of the A allele with addiction. Therefore we hypothesized the association of the related allele and sucess in cyclists. Although we were unable to find statistically significant difference, we suggest to analyse the same polymorphism in athletes with different sport branches to fulfill the role of the given polymorphism.