Neuronal transcription factors play vital roles in the specification and development of neurons, including dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Mutations in the gene encoding the purine biosynthetic enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) cause the resulting intractable and largely untreatable neurological impairment of Lesch-Nyhan disease (LND). The disorder is associated with a defect in basal ganglia DA pathways. The mechanisms connecting the purine metabolic defect and the central nervous system (CNS) phenotype are poorly understood but have been presumed to reflect a developmental defect of DA neurons. We have examined the effect of HPRT deficiency on the differentiation of neurons in the well-established human (NT2) embryonic carcinoma neurogenesis model. We have used a retrovirus expressing a small hairpin RNA (shRNA) to knock down HPRT gene expression and have examined the expression of a number of transcription factors essential for neuronal differentiation and marker genes involved in DA biosynthetic pathway. HPRT-deficient NT2 cells demonstrate aberrant expression of several transcription factors and DA markers. Although differentiated HPRT-deficient neurons also demonstrate a striking deficit in neurite outgrowth during differentiation, resulting neurons demonstrate wild-type electrophysiological properties. These results represent direct experimental evidence for aberrant neurogenesis in HPRT deficiency and suggest developmental roles for other housekeeping genes in neurodevelopmental disease.