Parkin is a zinc-finger protein that is related to ubiquitin at the amino terminus. The wild type Parkin gene, which maps to human chromosome 6q25.2-27, encodes a 465 amino acid full-length protein that is expressed as multiple isoforms. Mutations in the Parkin gene are responsible for autosomal recessive juvenile Parkinson's disease and commonly involve deletions of exons 3-5. In humans, Parkin is expressed in a subset of cells of the basal ganglia, midbrain, cerebellum and cerebral cortex, and is subject to alternative splicing in different tissues. Parkin expression is also high in the brainstem of mice, with the majority of immunopositive cells being neurons. The Parkin gene has been identified in a diverse group of organisms including mammals, birds, frog and fruit flies, suggesting that analogous functional roles of the Parkin protein may have been highly conserved during the course of evolution.
