Handedness and the X chromosome: The role of androgen receptor CAG-repeat length

Prenatal androgen exposure has been suggested to be one of the factors influencing handedness, making the androgen receptor gene (AR) a likely candidate gene for individual differences in handedness. Here, we examined the relationship between the length of the CAG-repeat in AR and different handedne...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2015-02, Vol.5 (1), p.8325-8325, Article 8325
Main Authors: Arning, Larissa, Ocklenburg, Sebastian, Schulz, Stefanie, Ness, Vanessa, Gerding, Wanda M., Hengstler, Jan G., Falkenstein, Michael, Epplen, Jörg T., Güntürkün, Onur, Beste, Christian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/208/1515
631/208/205
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Androgen receptors
Androgens
Chromosomes
Chromosomes, Human, X
Female
Functional Laterality - genetics
Genotype
Handedness
Hemispheric laterality
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Inactivation
Male
Middle Aged
multidisciplinary
Phenotype
Polyglutamine
Prenatal experience
Receptors, Androgen - genetics
Science
Sex Factors
Statistical analysis
Trinucleotide Repeats
X chromosomes
X-chromosome inactivation
Young Adult
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Summary:Prenatal androgen exposure has been suggested to be one of the factors influencing handedness, making the androgen receptor gene (AR) a likely candidate gene for individual differences in handedness. Here, we examined the relationship between the length of the CAG-repeat in AR and different handedness phenotypes in a sample of healthy adults of both sexes (n = 1057). Since AR is located on the X chromosome, statistical analyses in women heterozygous for CAG-repeat lengths are complicated by X chromosome inactivation. We thus analyzed a sample of women that were homozygous for the CAG-repeat length (n = 77). Mixed-handedness in men was significantly associated with longer CAG-repeat blocks and women homozygous for longer CAG-repeats showed a tendency for stronger left-handedness. These results suggest that handedness in both sexes is associated with the AR CAG-repeat length, with longer repeats being related to a higher incidence of non-right-handedness. Since longer CAG-repeat blocks have been linked to less efficient AR function, these results implicate that differences in AR signaling in the developing brain might be one of the factors that determine individual differences in brain lateralization.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep08325