The parkin gene is not a major susceptibility locus for typical late-onset Parkinson's disease.

We investigated the parkin gene in 118 patients with typical Parkinson's disease (PD), i. e. in patients who had an onset of PD after the age of 45 years. The study group included 95 subjects with sporadic PD and 23 subjects from 18 families with autosomal recessive PD. No pathogenetic mutations in the parkin gene were detected either in familial or in sporadic patients. Our findings indicate that the parkin gene is not involved in the pathogenesis of classic late-onset PD.