SCI REP-UK

Understanding the process of adaptation remains a key challenge for strength and conditioning coaches to enhance basketball athletic performance. While physical performance improvements are often used to track progress, these changes originate from various molecular mechanisms, with DNA methylation potentially playing a pivotal role in training-induced adaptations. This study aimed to investigate genome-wide DNA methylation changes following one weekly 30-min Superset (SST) and Repeated Sprint Training (RST) over eight weeks, in youth basketball players. Sixty-two male youth basketball players (U-13 to U-18) completed pre- and post-intervention assessments of explosive strength, aerobic fitness, speed and agility, along with saliva sampling for DNA methylation analysis. Participants were randomized into SST or RST groups, completing 30-min weekly sessions over 8 weeks alongside regular basketball training. DNA methylation was profiled using the Illumina 930 K (EPIC v2) microarray. The SST and RST resulted in 112 and 308 differentially methylated positions (DMPs), respectively, from which 76% and 73% were hypomethylated. Enrichment analysis revealed multiple pathways in saliva-derived cells including: mTOR, PI3K-Akt and cAMP signalling for SST, and VEGFA, IGF receptor, BDNF, angiogenesis, vascular development, NF-κB, MAPK and PI3K-Akt signalling pathways for RST. The changes in DNA methylation following 30-min weekly SST and RST sessions over 8 weeks, together with enrichment analysis revealing distinct molecular pathways in saliva for each training intervention, provide preliminary evidence that different training modalities may elicit distinct epigenetic responses. These findings provide a descriptive characterization of salivary DNA methylation responses to SST and RST in youth basketball players and identify potential epigenetic signatures associated with different training stimuli.