Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is common in middle‐aged and elderly people, and its onset is related to multiple factors, such as heredity, environment, and age. The vesicle protein sorting 35 (VPS35) gene was found to be a late‐onset autosomal dominant familial PD (PARK17) causative gene. The protein encoded by this gene is located in the endosome and aggregates with other membrane proteins to form a retromer complex, which participates in the membrane protein cycle between the endosome and the Golgi network. Increasing evidence shows that VPS35 may participate in the pathogenesis of PD by affecting autophagy, mitochondria, neurosynaptic transmission, dopamine signaling pathways, and so forth, and it can interact with other disease‐causing genes of familial PD. This article aimed to review the functions of VPS35 and the mechanism of its mutations in PD that have been discovered in recent years.

Objective: To explore the genetic basis for a Chinese pedigree where two siblings were afected with early-onset Parkinson's disease (EOPD). Methods: Clinical examinations and genomic analyses were performed on ive subjects belonging to two generations of a Han Chinese family. Target regions capture and high throughput sequencing were used to screen these genes associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), tremor, spinocerebellar ataxia, and dystonia. The multiplex ligation dependent probe ampliication (MLPA) method was applied to detect rearrangements and large deletion in PARKIN exons. Results: Two family members were diagnosed with PD by clinical manifestations. Compound heterozygous mutations, consisting of a fragment deletion in exon 2 and 3 of the PARKIN gene, identiied by MLPA in II-3, II-5. Individual exon2 deletion mutations were detected in II-1 while individual exon3 deletion mutations were detected in two thirds generations (III-5, III-6). The compound heterozygous mutations have co-segregated with the disease in the pedigree. Other mutations in some genes associated with PD, tremor, dystonia and other movement disorders were not detected. Conclusion:A novel compound heterozygous deletion mutations of the PARKIN gene were identiied in a Chinese pedigree and might represent a cause of familial EOPD with autosomal dominant inheritance.Early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD) with PARKIN gene mutation has genetic and clinical heterogeneity.