Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Click Me!

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

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
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

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

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Genomic and functional profiling of human Down syndrome neural progenitors implicates S100B and aquaporin 4 in cell injury.
G. Esposito, J. Imitola, J. Lu, D. De Filippis, C. Scuderi, V. S. Ganesh, R. Folkerth, J. Hecht, S. Shin, T. Iuvone, et al. (2008)
Hum. Mol. Genet. 17, 440-457
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genome-wide analyses of human perisylvian cerebral cortical patterning.
B. S. Abrahams, D. Tentler, J. V. Perederiy, M. C. Oldham, G. Coppola, and D. H. Geschwind (2007)
PNAS 104, 17849-17854
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mapping Cortical Thickness in Children with 22q11.2 Deletions.
C. E. Bearden, T. G.M. van Erp, R. A. Dutton, H. Tran, L. Zimmermann, D. Sun, J. A. Geaga, T. J. Simon, D. C. Glahn, T. D. Cannon, et al. (2007)
Cereb Cortex 17, 1889-1898
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Altered orbitofrontal sulcogyral pattern in schizophrenia.
M. Nakamura, P. G. Nestor, R. W. McCarley, J. J. Levitt, L. Hsu, T. Kawashima, M. Niznikiewicz, and M. E. Shenton (2007)
Brain 130, 693-707
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Neuropilin asymmetry mediates a left-right difference in habenular connectivity.
Y.-S. Kuan, H.-H. Yu, C. B. Moens, and M. E. Halpern (2007)
Development 134, 857-865
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Regional Gray Matter Growth, Sexual Dimorphism, and Cerebral Asymmetry in the Neonatal Brain.
J. H. Gilmore, W. Lin, M. W. Prastawa, C. B. Looney, Y. S. K. Vetsa, R. C. Knickmeyer, D. D. Evans, J. K. Smith, R. M. Hamer, J. A. Lieberman, et al. (2007)
J. Neurosci. 27, 1255-1260
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Singing Mice, Songbirds, and More: Models for FOXP2 Function and Dysfunction in Human Speech and Language.
S. A. White, S. E. Fisher, D. H. Geschwind, C. Scharff, and T. E. Holy (2006)
J. Neurosci. 26, 10376-10379
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Calcium Activation of the LMO4 Transcription Complex and Its Role in the Patterning of Thalamocortical Connections..
A. H. Kashani, Z. Qiu, L. Jurata, S.-K. Lee, S. Pfaff, S. Goebbels, K.-A. Nave, and A. Ghosh (2006)
J. Neurosci. 26, 8398-8408
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Searching for Neuronal Left/Right Asymmetry: Genomewide Analysis of Nematode Receptor-Type Guanylyl Cyclases.
C. O. Ortiz, J. F. Etchberger, S. L. Posy, C. Frokjaer-Jensen, S. Lockery, B. Honig, and O. Hobert (2006)
Genetics 173, 131-149
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A familial syndrome of unilateral polymicrogyria affecting the right hemisphere.
B. S. Chang, K. A. Apse, R. Caraballo, J. H. Cross, A. Mclellan, R. D. Jacobson, K. D. Valente, A. J. Barkovich, and C. A. Walsh (2006)
Neurology 66, 133-135
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Neuroscientist Comments.
(2005)
Neuroscientist 11, 522-523
   PDF »
Lateralization of the Vertebrate Brain: Taking the Side of Model Systems.
M. E. Halpern, O. Gunturkun, W. D. Hopkins, and L. J. Rogers (2005)
J. Neurosci. 25, 10351-10357
   Full Text »    PDF »
Patterning and Plasticity of the Cerebral Cortex.
M. Sur and J. L. R. Rubenstein (2005)
Science 310, 805-810
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)