Jiang et al.’s clinical trial revealed that the expression of PINK1, Parkin, and microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) was significantly down-regulated in clinical specimens of gingival tissues from patients with periodontitis compared to those with healthy gingival tissues, suggesting that aberrant mitophagy is relevant to periodontitis (Jiang et al., 2023a). The gene discussed is MAP1LC3A; the disease is periodontitis.