A number of genes that have been shown to cause familial autosomal-recessive forms of Parkinson's disease are known to be important for the targeting of mitochondria to this pathway, such as Parkin and Pink1. The recruitment of parkin, a ubiquitin E3 ligase, to damaged mitochondria requires the function of the putative kinase, Pink1. The gene discussed is PRKN; the disease is Parkinson disease.