Compound mutations and homozygous loss of function of the parkin gene causes juvenile and early onset, autosomal recessive parkinsonism. Pathologically, the disease is associated with loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta and locus ceruleus, usually without Lewy body pathology. Hemizygous families have been described that may harbor mutations outside of the open reading frame. The parkin gene promoter has yet to be characterized, and therein, mutations in hemizygous families may plausibly be identified. To identify the promoter of the parkin gene, the transcription start site was defined by a combination of primer extension and 5' RACE. Five kilobases of DNA 5' to the parkin start codon were directly sequenced from a BAC containing parkin exon 1 and evaluated for promoter motifs. The parkin promoter lacks TATA or CAAT boxes and appears to share homology to the alpha-synuclein promoter. Deletion constructs demonstrated core promoter activity and tissue specific enhancing regions in HEK-293T and SH-SY5Y cells.