The possible role of autophagy in PD pathogenesis [80, 81] was recently assessed in a mouse model generated by the conditional deletion of the autophagy-related gene Atg7, which recapitulates many pathologic features of PD, including age-related loss of mDA neurons [82]. En1 heterozygous mice thus represent a valuable model to gain further insights into PD pathogenesis. The gene discussed is ATG7; the disease is Parkinson disease.