In vitro studies and biochemical analysis have provided convincing evidence that PINK1 mediates mitophagy by its association with mitochondria and phosphorylation of Parkin and ubiquitin (Lazarou et al., 2015; Ordureau et al., 2015; Gladkova et al., 2018), leading to the prevalent theory that PINK1 mutations may impair mitophagy to cause PD neuropathology (de Vries and Przedborski, 2013; Pickrell and Youle, 2015; Chu, 2019). The gene discussed is PINK1; the disease is Parkinson disease.