New mutation (R42P) of the parkin gene in the ubiquitinlike domain associated with parkinsonism

Objective: To investigate the association between parkin gene mutations and parkinsonism in an Italian family in which three of 12 siblings born to first-degree consanguineous parents had early-onset parkinsonism. Background: Several deleting or truncating mutations as well as missense mutations of the parkin gene were associated with early-onset parkinsonism. Method: Three brothers were examined clinically at several stages of the disease. Single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis was done on the parkin gene of 32 members of the family. Samples showing mobility shifts were considered for mutation analysis. Results: Direct DNA sequencing revealed a novel homozygous amino acid substitution, Arg42Pro, in all three patients compared with a control DNA sample. The mutation occurred in the ubiquitinlike domain at the N-terminal of the protein. The patients did not display the clinical hallmarks previously seen with parkin mutations and were indistinguishable from patients with sporadic PD. Conclusions: These findings confirm the recessive character of parkin mutations causing early-onset parkinsonism and the essential role of the ubiquitinlike region, highly conserved among species, and in accordance with the proposed parkin function.