VALENCIA, Spain, Oct 22, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Spanish and British researchers have identified a gene that causes a common form of inherited Parkinson's disease.

The team, led by Jordi Perez-Tur of the Institut de Biomedicina de Valencia-CSIC, were seeking to pinpoint the gene that caused a form of the disease called PARK8, which was first reported in 2002.

Until their studies, it was only known that PARK8 was caused by a mutation in a gene somewhere along a chromosomal region, or locus, that contained about 116 genes.

The researchers identified a protein they have named "dardarin," a Basque word meaning "tremor," as a cause of PARK8. Part of their evidence includes the fact that dardarin is expressed throughout the brain and that the characteristic mutations in dardarin are not present in more than 1,400 corresponding chromosomes from people without Parkinson's.

One of the characteristic mutations was also identified in 8 percent of 137 apparently unrelated Basque people with Parkinson's. The scientists said that figure suggests that this mutation that underlies PARK8 Parkinson's is a relatively common cause of the disease in the Basque population.

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