To ascertain that this decrease in fluorescence was due to parkin-Beclin-1 interaction, post-mortem PD striatal extracts, which show significantly increased beclin-1 levels (Fig. 1N, 32%, p<0.05, 1st blot) relative to tubulin (2nd blot), were immunoprecipitated with Beclin-1 antibody and showed decreased levels of parkin (Fig. 1N, 3rd blot). The gene discussed is BECN1; the disease is Parkinson disease.