Parkinson's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Parkinson's Disease, including details on symptoms, treatment, genetics, medication.

Cloning of the gene containing mutations that cause PARK8-linked Parkinson's disease.

Paisán-Ruíz C, Jain S, Evans EW, Gilks WP, Simón J, van der Brug M, López de Munain A, Aparicio S, Gil AM, Khan N, Johnson J, Martinez JR, Nicholl D, Carrera IM, Pena AS, de Silva R, Lees A, Martí-Massó JF, Pérez-Tur J, Wood NW, Singleton AB

Unitat de Genètica Molecular, Departament de Genòmica i Proteòmica, Institut de Biomedicina de València-CSIC, E46010 València, Spain.

Parkinson's disease (PD; OMIM #168600) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the Western world and presents as a progressive movement disorder. The hallmark pathological features of PD are loss of dopaminergic neurons from the substantia nigra and neuronal intracellular Lewy body inclusions. Parkinsonism is typically sporadic in nature; however, several rare familial forms are linked to genetic loci, and the identification of causal mutations has provided insight into the disease process. PARK8, identified in 2002 by Funayama and colleagues, appears to be a common cause of familial PD. We describe here the cloning of a novel gene that contains missense mutations segregating with PARK8-linked PD in five families from England and Spain. Because of the tremor observed in PD and because a number of the families are of Basque descent, we have named this protein dardarin, derived from the Basque word dardara, meaning tremor.

Published 15 November 2004 in Neuron, 44(4): 595-600.
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