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 patterned macular dystrophy characterized by a 'dry desert land' pattern of the fundus, involving the posterior pole initially and progressing from the temporal fovea to the periphery of the retina developing in the fourth or fifth decade of life that has_material_basis_in heterozygous mutation in the MAPKAPK3 gene on chromosome 3p21. (DO)