RGD uses the Human Disease Ontology (DO, https://disease-ontology.org/) for disease curation across species. RGD automatically downloads each new release of the ontology on a monthly basis. Some additional terms which are required for RGD's curation purposes but are not currently covered in the official version of DO have been added. As corresponding terms are added to DO, these custom terms are retired and the DO terms substituted in existing annotations and subsequently used for curation.
This is a disease characterized by a variable phenotype ranging from no clinical symptoms (most patients) to episodes of encephalopathy and Leigh syndrome-like (see 256000) brain lesions, with acute symptoms triggered by infections and fasting.