Left Hand
A genetic study has identified a biological process that influences whether we are right handed or left handed.
Scientists at the Universities of
Oxford, St Andrews, Bristol and the Max Plank Institute in Nijmegen, the
Netherlands, found correlations between handedness and a network of
genes involved in establishing left-right asymmetry in developing
embryos.
‘The genes are involved in the
biological process through which an early embryo moves on from being a
round ball of cells and becomes a growing organism with an established
left and right side,’ explained first author William Brandler, a PhD
student in the MRC Functional Genomics Unit at Oxford University.
The researchers suggest that the genes
may also help establish left-right differences in the brain, which in
turn influences handedness.
They report their findings in the open-access journal PLOS Genetics.
Humans are the only species to show such
a strong bias in handedness, with around 90% of people being
right-handed. The cause of this bias remains largely a mystery.
The researchers, led by Dr Silvia
Paracchini at the University of St Andrews, were interested in
understanding which genes might have an influence on handedness, in
order to gain an insight into the causes and evolution of handedness.
The team carried out a genome-wide
association study to identify any common gene variants that might
correlate with which hand people prefer using.
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