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.
An epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica characterized by recurrent blistering at the level of the sublamina densa beneath the cutaneous basement membrane; it has_material_basis_in homozygous or compound heterozygous mutation in the gene encoding type VII collagen (COL7A1) on chromosome 3p21. (DO)