TARDBP and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: The TAR-DNA binding protein (TARDBP) gene encodes the protein TDP-43, which was first linked to ALS as the major component of the cytoplasmic, ubiquitin-positive inclusions found in the majority of ALS cases, i.e. without mutations (Arai et al., 2006; Neumann et al., 2006).