Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) alleles in the Quechua, a high altitude South American native population

Recently it was reported that an allelic variant of the gene encoding angio tensin-converting enzyme (ACE) was significantly over-represented in a coho rt of elite British mountaineers. It was proposed that this may be evidence for a specific genetic factor influencing the human capacity for physical performance. The implication that this allele could enhance performance at high altitude prompted us to determine its frequency in Quechua speaking na tives living at altitudes greater than 3000 m on the Andean Altiplano in So uth America. We found that the frequency of the putative performance allele in the Quechuas, although significantly higher than in Caucasians, was not different from lowland Native American populations. This observation sugge sts that, although the higher frequency of the 'performance allele' may hav e facilitated the migration of the ancestral Quechua to the highlands, the ACE insertion allele has not been subsequently selected for in this high al titude population.