Down syndrome, the most frequent form of mental retardation caused by a microscopically demonstrable chromosomal aberration, is characterized by well-defined and distinctive phenotypic features and natural history. It is caused by triplicate state (trisomy) of all or a critical portion of chromosome 21.

Trichorhinophalangeal syndrome (TRPS) comprises TRPS I (caused by a heterozygous pathogenic variant in TRPS1) and TRPS II (caused by contiguous gene deletion of TRPS1, RAD21, and EXT1). Both types of TRPS are characterized by distinctive facial features; ectodermal features (fine, sparse, depigmented, and slow growing hair; dystrophic nails; and small breasts); and skeletal findings (short stature; short feet; brachydactyly with ulnar or radial deviation of the fingers; and early, marked hip dysplasia). TRPS II is characterized by multiple osteochondromas (typically first observed clinically on the scapulae and around the elbows and knees between ages 1 month and 6 years) and an increased risk of mild-to-moderate intellectual disability.

MED12-related disorders include the phenotypes of FG syndrome type 1 (FGS1), Lujan syndrome (LS), X-linked Ohdo syndrome (XLOS), Hardikar syndrome (HS), and nonspecific intellectual disability (NSID). FGS1 and LS share the clinical findings of cognitive impairment, hypotonia, and abnormalities of the corpus callosum. FGS1 is further characterized by absolute or relative macrocephaly, tall forehead, downslanted palpebral fissures, small and simple ears, constipation and/or anal anomalies, broad thumbs and halluces, and characteristic behavior. LS is further characterized by large head, tall thin body habitus, long thin face, prominent nasal bridge, high narrow palate, and short philtrum. Carrier females in families with FGS1 and LS are typically unaffected. XLOS is characterized by intellectual disability, blepharophimosis, and facial coarsening. HS has been described in females with cleft lip and/or cleft palate, biliary and liver anomalies, intestinal malrotation, pigmentary retinopathy, and coarctation of the aorta. Developmental and cognitive concerns have not been reported in females with HS. Pathogenic variants in MED12 have been reported in an increasing number of males and females with NSID, with affected individuals often having clinical features identified in other MED12-related disorders.

WT1 disorder is characterized by congenital/infantile or childhood onset of steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS), a progressive glomerulopathy that does not respond to standard steroid therapy. Additional common findings can include disorders of testicular development (with or without abnormalities of the external genitalia and/or müllerian structures) and Wilms tumor. Less common findings are congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) and gonadoblastoma. While various combinations of renal and other findings associated with a WT1 pathogenic variant were designated as certain syndromes in the past, those designations are now recognized to be part of a phenotypic continuum and are no longer clinically helpful.

Congenital alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV) is characterized histologically by failure of formation and ingrowth of alveolar capillaries that then do not make contact with alveolar epithelium, medial muscular thickening of small pulmonary arterioles with muscularization of the intraacinar arterioles, thickened alveolar walls, and anomalously situated pulmonary veins running alongside pulmonary arterioles and sharing the same adventitial sheath. Less common features include a reduced number of alveoli and a patchy distribution of the histopathologic changes. The disorder is associated with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the neonate and shows varying degrees of lability and severity (Boggs et al., 1994). Affected infants present with respiratory distress resulting from pulmonary hypertension in the early postnatal period, and the disease is uniformly fatal within the newborn period (Vassal et al., 1998). Additional features of ACDMPV include multiple congenital anomalies affecting the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and musculoskeletal systems, as well as disruption of the normal right-left asymmetry of intrathoracic or intraabdominal organs (Sen et al., 2004).

Heterotaxy ('heter' meaning 'other' and 'taxy' meaning 'arrangement'), or situs ambiguus, is a developmental condition characterized by randomization of the placement of visceral organs, including the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and stomach. The organs are oriented randomly with respect to the left-right axis and with respect to one another (Srivastava, 1997). Heterotaxy is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorder. For a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of visceral heterotaxy, see HTX1 (306955).

Cardiac-urogenital syndrome is characterized by partial anomalous pulmonary venous return in association with tracheal anomalies, pulmonary hypoplasia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, thyroid fibrosis, thymic involution, cleft spleen, penoscrotal hypospadias, and cryptorchidism (Pinz et al., 2018).

Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy-85 with or without midline brain defects (DEE85) is an X-linked neurologic disorder characterized by onset of severe refractory seizures in the first year of life, global developmental delay with impaired intellectual development and poor or absent speech, and dysmorphic facial features. The seizures tend to show a cyclic pattern with clustering. Many patients have midline brain defects on brain imaging, including thin corpus callosum and/or variable forms of holoprosencephaly (HPE). The severity and clinical manifestations are variable. Almost all reported patients are females with de novo mutations predicted to result in a loss of function (LOF). However, some patients may show skewed X inactivation, and the pathogenic mechanism may be due to a dominant-negative effect. The SMC1A protein is part of the multiprotein cohesin complex involved in chromatid cohesion during DNA replication and transcriptional regulation; DEE85 can thus be classified as a 'cohesinopathy' (summary by Symonds et al., 2017 and Kruszka et al., 2019). For a general phenotypic description and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of DEE, see 308350.

Multiple types of congenital heart defects-8 (CHTD8) is characterized by cardiac septal defects, double-outlet right ventricle, unbalanced complete atrioventricular canal, and valvular anomalies, as well as vascular anomalies including dextroposition of the great arteries, anomalous pulmonary venous return, and superior vena cava to left atrium defect. Patients may also exhibit laterality defects, including dextrocardia, atrial isomerism, dextrogastria, left-sided gallbladder, and intestinal malrotation (Zaidi et al., 2013; Granadillo et al., 2018).

Proximal 1p36 deletion syndrome is a multisystem developmental disorder characterized by global developmental delay with impaired intellectual development, poor overall growth with microcephaly, axial hypotonia, and dysmorphic facial features. Most patients have congenital cardiac malformations or cardiac dysfunction. Additional more variable features may include distal skeletal anomalies, seizures, and cleft palate. The phenotype shows some overlap with distal chromosome 1p36 deletion syndrome (summary by Kang et al., 2007).

Visceral heterotaxy-12 (HTX12) is an embryonic developmental disorder characterized by defects in the asymmetric positioning of visceral organs across the left-right axis, known as laterality defects. The phenotype is highly variable, ranging from complete organ reversal (situs inversus totalis) to selective misarrangement of organs (situs ambiguus) such as the liver, spleen, and pancreas. The disorder is often associated with dextrocardia or variable complex congenital heart defects. Early death may occur in the most severe cases (summary by Szenker-Ravi et al., 2022). For a discussion of the genetic heterogeneity of visceral heterotaxy, see HTX1 (306955).