This critical step in the fate of a damaged mitochondrion has been only identified in the context of functional characterisation of genes related to autosomal recessive forms of PD (PARK6 and PRKN/PARK2), which encode the proteins PINK1, a mitochondrial localised kinase and Parkin, a ubiquitin-E3 ligase (Narendra et al. 2008, Youle and van der Bliek 2012). Here, PRKN is linked to Parkinson disease.