Functional impairment in RHOT1/Miro1 degradation and mitophagy is a shared feature in familial and sporadic Parkinson disease.

Mitophagy is a conserved and highly regulated process of selective degradation crucial in maintaining normal cellular physiology. Genetic defects and cellular aberrations affecting mitophagy have been associated with the development of Parkinson disease. In their recently published article (highlighted in a punctum in this issue of the journal) Hsieh et al. present a putative mitophagy marker, which serves as a mechanistic link between sporadic and familial Parkinson disease.