Autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism (AR-JP) is an early-onset form of Parkinson's disease characterized by motor disturbances and dopaminergic neurodegeneration. To address its underlying molecular pathogenesis, we generated and characterized loss-of-function mutants of Drosophila PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1), a novel AR-JP-linked gene. Here, we show that PINK1 mutants exhibit indirect flight muscle and dopaminergic neuronal degeneration accompanied by locomotive defects. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy analysis and a rescue experiment with Drosophila Bcl-2 demonstrated that mitochondrial dysfunction accounts for the degenerative changes in all phenotypes of PINK1 mutants. Notably, we also found that PINK1 mutants share marked phenotypic similarities with parkin mutants. Transgenic expression of Parkin markedly ameliorated all PINK1 loss-of-function phenotypes, but not vice versa, suggesting that Parkin functions downstream of PINK1. Taken together, our genetic evidence clearly establishes that Parkin and PINK1 act in a common pathway in maintaining mitochondrial integrity and function in both muscles and dopaminergic neurons.

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Parkin, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, has been found to be responsible for autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism characterized primarily by selective loss of dopaminergic neurons with subsequent defects in movements. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this neuron loss remain elusive. Here, we characterized Drosophila parkin loss-of-function mutants, which exhibit shrinkage of dopaminergic neurons with decreased tyrosine hydroxylase level and impaired locomotion. The behavioral defect of parkin mutant flies was partially restored by administering L-DOPA, and the dopamine level in the brains of parkin mutant flies was highly decreased. Intriguingly, we found that c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) is strongly activated in the dopaminergic neurons of parkin mutants and that impaired dopaminergic neuron phenotypes are dependent on the activation of the JNK signaling pathway. In consistent with this, our epistatic analysis and mammalian cell studies showed that Parkin inhibits the JNK signaling pathway in an E3 activity-dependent manner. These results suggest that loss of Parkin function up-regulates the JNK signaling pathway, which may contribute to the vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila parkin mutants and perhaps autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism patients.Parkinson's disease ͉ ubiquitination ͉ tyrosine hydroxylase ͉ degeneration ͉ apoptosis P arkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in North America, affecting Ͼ1 million people. The major symptoms of PD include rigidity, tremor, bradykinesia of the limbs, and postural instability. These symptoms result primarily from a deficiency of dopamine caused by selective degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in two regions of the brain, the substantia nigra pars compacta and striatum. Another pathological feature of this disease is the presence of inclusion bodies, called Lewy bodies, in those surviving neurons (1). The average onset of the disease is at the age of 60, but the pervasion of PD is not restricted to aging individuals; the onset of autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism (AR-JP) is usually between the age of 20 and 40 (2).Even though PD is largely a sporadic disorder, mutations in the genes responsible for PD, either autosomal dominant or recessive, have been found in a number of affected families. To date, six genes, namely, ␣-synuclein (PARK1) (3), parkin (PARK2) (4), UCH-L1 (PARK5) (5), PINK1 (PARK6) (6), DJ-1 (PARK7) (7), and the most recently identified, LRRK2͞dardarin (PARK8) (8, 9), have been isolated as pathological candidates for PD by family-based linkage analyses and positional cloning. Among them, mutations in parkin, PINK1, and DJ-1 were found to be associated with earlyonset autosomal recessive parkinsonism (4, 6, 7).In particular, Parkin is an E3 ubiquitin ligase, encoded by parkin, the most common gene mutated in familial PD. Although its exact in vivo function is not clearly revealed, the structure of Parkin gives significant clues to its possible function in the ubiquitination path...

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