Because phenotypes and genes are distinct concepts, their names should evolve appropriately and independently. OMIM does not name phenotypes after the gene symbol for many reasons, perhaps the most important being that patients present with clinical features, not all phenotypes have a recognized molecular basis, and many people around the world will not be sequenced. A patient has the condition whether the cause is known or not. Furthermore, more than one third of the >4000 disease genes cause more than one phenotype, each with its own unique features, prognosis, and treatment. For example, the MSX1 gene causes three different types of disorders (Figure 3A). Use of the same name for gene and phenotype confuses the literature and obfuscates text mining and machine learning. In addition, a gene name often changes with greater knowledge of the gene's function. Finally, organizing a phenotype into its various clinical subtypes allows recognition of patterns of causation (pathways and interacting proteins) that would not be possible if disorders were simply named after the genes that cause them. An illustration of the different types of Ehlers-Danlos
