SOUTH paw? Port-sider? Handedness has been linked to genes that control asymmetries in the body for the first time.
William Brandler at the University of Oxford and his colleagues studied data from 3300 people, who performed a task to determine how strongly left or right-handed they are.
Out of 100,000 mutations across the volunteers' genomes, the ones that correlated most strongly with handedness clustered in genes that govern body asymmetries (PLoS Genetics, doi.org/nsb).
Asymmetry could explain why humans are more likely to be right-handed. "Most people show left-hemisphere dominance for language," says Brandler. Perhaps as language became increasingly important, the left hemisphere – which controls the right side of the body – took a leading role, and a right-hand preference emerged.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Set of genes linked to left-handedness"
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