Fumarate hydratase (FH) deficiency results in severe neonatal and early infantile encephalopathy that is characterized by poor feeding, failure to thrive, hypotonia, lethargy, and seizures. Dysmorphic facial features include frontal bossing, depressed nasal bridge, and widely spaced eyes. Many affected individuals are microcephalic. A spectrum of brain abnormalities are seen on magnetic resonance imaging, including cerebral atrophy, enlarged ventricles and generous extra-axial cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) spaces, delayed myelination for age, thinning of the corpus callosum, and an abnormally small brain stem. Brain malformations including bilateral polymicrogyria and absence of the corpus callosum can also be observed. Development is severely affected: most affected individuals are nonverbal and nonambulatory, and many die during early childhood. Less severely affected individuals with moderate cognitive impairment and long-term survival have been reported.

FBXL4-related encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) depletion syndrome is a multi-system disorder characterized primarily by congenital or early-onset lactic acidosis and growth failure, feeding difficulty, hypotonia, and developmental delay. Other neurologic manifestations can include seizures, movement disorders, ataxia, autonomic dysfunction, and stroke-like episodes. All affected individuals alive at the time they were reported (median age: 3.5 years) demonstrated significant developmental delay. Other findings can involve the heart (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, congenital heart malformations, arrhythmias), liver (mildly elevated transaminases), eyes (cataract, strabismus, nystagmus, optic atrophy), hearing (sensorineural hearing loss), and bone marrow (neutropenia, lymphopenia). Survival varies; the median age of reported deaths was two years (range 2 days – 75 months), although surviving individuals as old as 36 years have been reported. To date FBXL4-related mtDNA depletion syndrome has been reported in 50 individuals.