SNCA and Parkinson disease: Mitochondrial dysfunction is a central feature of PD, and numerous studies have implicated α-synuclein in decreasing mitochondrial activity in various animal (Bender et al., 2013; Chinta et al., 2010; Li et al., 2013; Martin et al., 2006; Sarafian et al., 2013; Zhu et al., 2011) and cell culture (Devi et al., 2008; Parihar et al., 2008; Reeve et al., 2015) models of disease.