Parkinson's disease is characterized by parkinsonism — rigidity, resting tremor and slowness in initiating and carrying out movement. The gene for a rare autosomal recessive form of parkinsonism (AR-JP) has now been cloned and, although AR-JP differs in some respects from Parkinson's disease, the new gene could help to shed light on the causes of Parkinson's. Termedparkin, the gene has a ubiquitin homology domain, indicating that a defect in proteasome function could be involved in Parkinson's disease.
