With the growing interest in the physiological importance of inter-organelle contact sites, coupled with the long-standing links between ER, mitochondria and Ca2+ dysfunction in PD, a slew of studies began to connect the alteration of MERCS structure and function to multiple PD-related proteins, including α-Synuclein, LRRK2 and DJ-1 (reviewed in [162]). This evidence concerns the gene SNCA and Parkinson disease.