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Originally published in Science Express on 12 May 2005
Science 17 June 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5729, pp. 1794 - 1798
DOI: 10.1126/science.1110324
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Reports

Early Asymmetry of Gene Transcription in Embryonic Human Left and Right Cerebral Cortex

Tao Sun,1 Christina Patoine,1 Amir Abu-Khalil,2 Jane Visvader,3 Eleanor Sum,3 Timothy J. Cherry,1 Stuart H. Orkin,4 Daniel H. Geschwind,2 Christopher A. Walsh1*

The human left and right cerebral hemispheres are anatomically and functionally asymmetric. To test whether human cortical asymmetry has a molecular basis, we studied gene expression levels between the left and right embryonic hemispheres using serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE). We identified and verified 27 differentially expressed genes, which suggests that human cortical asymmetry is accompanied by early, marked transcriptional asymmetries. LMO4 is consistently more highly expressed in the right perisylvian human cerebral cortex than in the left and is essential for cortical development in mice, suggesting that human left-right specialization reflects asymmetric cortical development at early stages.

1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, New Research Building Room 0266, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
2 Department of Neurology, Program in Neurogenetics, University of California–Los Angeles School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
3 Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium Laboratory, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Victoria 3050, Australia.
4 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Boston Children's Hospital, and Department of Pediatrics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cwalsh{at}bidmc.harvard.edu

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