(1.School of Physical Education,Jiangxi Normal University,Nanchang 330022,China;2.Beijing Economic Management School,Beijing 100142,China) Abstract: By comparing with traditional biochemical method used for athletic talent identification, the authors probed into the feasibility and advantages to apply such an emerging systems biological method as metabolomics in athletic talent identification. The authors selected 24 male SD rats, took their urine and blood samples when they were young (4-week old), used the urine samples for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomical analysis and the blood samples for testing hemoglobin (Hb) and serum testosterone (ST), then started gradually increasing swimming training loads until they became adults (14-week old), ran a loaded endurance swimming capacity test after training was finished, recorded the time taken by each rat to swim to an exhausted condition, ranked them based on the time of exhaustion, divided them into a top 3 group, a 4th-24th group, a top 12 group and a last 12 group, let them rest for 2 days after testing was completed, then decapitated them, took their right rear limb gas-trocnemius muscles for testing succinic dehydrogenase (SDH) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and revealed the following findings: No matter between the rats in the top 3 group and the 4th-24th group, or between the rats in the top 12 group and the last 12 group, their Hb, ST, SDH and LDH indexes were close, changing alternatively, showing no significant difference between the groups; yet the metabolic characteristic maps of the rats were significantly different, samples of the rats in different groups were clearly separated, while samples of the rats in the same group showed a sign of gathering. The findings indicated the followings: the metabolic characteristic maps of the rats measured when they were young can reflect the differences in their swimming capacities when they became adults; comparing with traditional biochemical method for athletic talent identification by utilizing one or several indexes, such a systems biological method as metabolomics has its unique advantages. Key words: sports biochemistry;metabolomics;athletic talent identification;NMR;pattern recognition;swimming;rat |