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.
A hereditary ataxia characterized by gait difficulty and instability especially in dark conditions resulting from sensory loss in the extremities and without cerebellar involvement that has_material_basis_in heterozygous mutations in the RNF170 gene on chromosome 8. (DO)