Department of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, formation of filamentous intraneuronal inclusions (Lewy bodies) and an extrapyramidal movement disorder. Mutations in the -synuclein gene are linked to familial Parkinson's disease1, 2 and -synuclein accumulates in Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites3-5. Here we express normal and mutant forms of -synuclein in Drosophila and produce adult-onset loss of dopaminergic neurons, filamentous intraneuronal inclusions containing -synuclein and locomotor dysfunction. Our Drosophila model thus recapitulates the essential features of the human disorder, and makes possible a powerful genetic approach to Parkinson's disease.