Whereas in mammalian PD models, mitophagy appears to play a beneficial role, the data observed in yeast PD models suggest for a lethal function of mitophagy: mitophagy is lethal during cell death upon expression of α-synuclein in yeast (Sampaio-Marques et al., 2012), and the expression of Lrrk2 fragments in yeast triggered a marked increase in autophagic vacuoles hinting to a disturbance of autophagic processes (Xiong et al., 2010). The gene discussed is SNCA; the disease is Parkinson disease.