• Background strain: Long Evans Hooded
• Homozygous knockout rats display total loss of protein via Western blot
• Park2 knockout rats show normal motor performance on rotarod

Availability: Live colony
Zygosity genotype: Homozygous

Developed in collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation, this model contains a deletion of the Park2 (Parkinson disease [autosomal recessive, juvenile] 2) gene, encoding for the protein Parkin. Mutations in Parkin have been linked to early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD), making this model useful to further understand the role of Parkin in PD.

In humans, loss of function of Park2 leads to a form of familial Parkinson's disease. The Parkin protein is part of the ubiquitin-proteasomal enzyme pathway and may help degrade other proteins that are toxic to neurons. Roughly 20% of patients with Parkinson's disease onset before age 40 have mutations within Park2, making this an ideal model for the study of Parkinson's disease.