Let S = K[x 1 ,. .. , x n ] denote the polynomial ring in n variables over a field K with each deg x i = 1 and I ⊂ S a homogeneous ideal. Let F S/I : 0 → j≥1 S (−(p + j)) βp,p+j (S/I) → • • • → j≥1 S (−(1 + j)) β1,1+j (S/I) → S → S/I → 0 be the minimal graded free resolution of S/I over S, where p = proj dim(S/I) is the projective dimension of S/I and β i,i+j (S/I) is the (i, i + j)-th graded Betti number of S/I. The (Castelnuovo-Mumford) regularity of S/I is reg (S/I) = max{j : β i,i+j (S/I) = 0}. A graded Betti number β i,i+j (S/I) = 0 is said to be extremal [4, Definition 4.3.13] if β k,k+ (S/I) = 0 for all pairs (k,) = (i, j) with k ≥ i and ≥ j. Extremal Betti numbers of graded algebras have been studied, for example, in [1,6]. In general, S/I has the unique extremal Betti number if and only if β p,p+r (S/I) = 0, where r = reg(S/I). These equivalent properties hold if S/I is Cohen-Macaulay [2, Lemma 3]. Moreover a Cohen-Macaulay graded algebra S/I is Gorenstein if and only if j β p,p+j (S/I) = β p,p+r (S/I) = 1. Let G be a finite simple graph (i.e. a graph with no loop and no multiple edge) on the vertex set V (G) = {x 1 , x 2 ,. .. , x n } with E(G) its edge set. The edge ideal of G is 150 T. Hibi et al. Arch. Math.