PRKN and neurodegenerative disease: In many metazoan cell types, mitophagy is regulated by PTEN-induced putative kinase protein 1 (PINK1) and PARKIN, a RING-HECT hybrid E3 ubiquitin ligase (which have no yeast homolog), and loss-of-function mutations in two genes encoding these proteins are linked to Parkinson’s disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disease in humans.