Evolutionary Continuity Research Articles

Evolutionary continuities and discontinuities in affective voice signaling.

Affective voice signaling has significant biological and social relevance across various species, and different affective signaling types have emerged through the evolution of voice communication. These types range from basic affective voice bursts and nonverbal affective up to affective intonations superimposed on speech utterances in humans in the form of paraverbal prosodic patterns. These different types of affective signaling should have evolved to be acoustically and perceptually distinctive, allowing accurate and nuanced affective communication. It might be assumed that affect signaling is most effective and distinctive in affective prosody as the presumably most recently evolved form of acoustic voice signaling. We investigated and compared two signaling types in human voice communication with different evolutionary backgrounds, referred to as nonverbal affect signals (shared across many species) and affective prosody (being exclusive in humans). We found, first, that various basic affect categories seem to be distinctively encoded in both signal types, but there seems minimal continuity in the acoustic code from nonverbal affect signals to affective prosody and vice versa. Second, we found that decoding affective meaning seems considerably impaired from affective prosody. Many positive affect signals and especially vocal disgust showed extreme decoding impairments from affective prosody, with speech acoustics probably constraining affect encoding in prosody to a considerable degree. Only the recognizability of voice signals of threat seems to be largely preserved in affective prosody. In conclusion, it points to considerable discontinuities between nonverbal and paraverbal affect signals, which questions the evolutionary precursors of human affect signaling in voice communication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Orangutans and chimpanzees produce morphologically varied laugh faces in response to the age and sex of their social partners

Laugh faces of humans play a key role in everyday social interactions as a pervasive tool of communication across contexts. Humans often vary the degree of mouth opening and teeth exposure when producing these facial expressions, which may depend on who their social partner is (e.g., their gender and age as well as their social relationship), serving this way different functions. Although it was found that laugh faces show evolutionary continuity across humans and non-human great apes according to the Principle of Maximum Parsimony, little is known about the function of laugh face variations from an evolutionary perspective. Hence, the present work examined the morphology of laugh faces in orangutan and chimpanzee dyadic play to test if they are modified with dependence on the playmate’s characteristics (sex, age and social relationship). In total, we analysed over 600 facial expressions of 14 orangutans and 17 chimpanzees by coding the specific muscle activations (Action Units, i.e. AUs) contributing to these expressions, using OrangFACS and ChimpFACS, respectively. Our results suggest that age difference and, to a lesser extent, playmate sex influence laugh face morphology in both taxa, but in opposite ways. While the orangutans of our study seem to expose their upper teeth (with AU10) and to pull the mouth corners (with AU12) more towards weaker partners (younger and female), possibly to communicate non-hostility, the chimpanzees showed both upper and lower teeth exposure (with AU10 and AU16) more often when interacting with the stronger partners (older individuals), possibly to communicate submissiveness. These findings suggest that the ability of humans to modify laugh faces with dependence on social partner characteristics has most likely evolved from pre-existing traits, going back at least to the last common ancestor of today’s great apes, including humans.

Values in Law: A Comparative Approach with References from Romanian, Russian, English, French, and Moldovan Legal Literature

The identification of legal values, which form the foundational support for the existence of the contemporary legal system, represents that synthetic social element that both differentiates and simultaneously ensures the evolutionary continuity of any legal system in its historical development process. When we focus on a value-based system, we accept as an axiom the interaction, mutual influence, and interplay of systemic elements of values that define the legal system at a given stage of societal development. Furthermore, values in law must inevitably be viewed as a component of a nation’s social and legal culture, since law, being an integral expression of this culture, inversely influences the evolution and preservation of national social and legal culture.

Global Distribution of Mammalian Cradles and Museums is Driven by Past Climate Dynamics and Present Water–Energy Balance

ABSTRACTAimTo describe worldwide distribution of mammalian cradles and museums using the rates of phylogenetic lineage turnover as a surrogate. Additionally, we investigated the influences of current water–energy dynamics, climate instability, past climate changes and elevational ranges on the distribution of these evolutionary zones.LocationGlobal.Time PeriodCurrent.Major Taxa StudiedTerrestrial mammals.MethodsWe developed a new methodology that consists of calculating the spatial phylogenetic turnover for non‐overlapping temporal segments of phylogenetic trees. By calculating the relative turnover in each tree segment, we quantified the rate of accumulation of phylogenetic turnover through time. We depicted cold and hotspots of rates of lineage turnover using bivariate maps and examined the effects of environmental factors using a path model.ResultsThe distributions of cradles and museums of biodiversity are primarily driven by water–energy dynamics. Environments with higher water availability than energetic demand predominantly act as cradles, as seen in tropical rainforests, while xeric‐like environments predominantly serve as museums. Conversely, regions undergoing higher historical climate changes become cradles, such as in higher northern latitudes, while climatically stable areas function as museums. Mountains play a dual role, acting as both cradles and museums by generating new lineages along their elevation bands while simultaneously providing climate refuges for ancient mammal lineages.Main ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that cradles and museums are not merely a dichotomy but exist along an evolutionary continuum. Furthermore, they reveal how spatial patterns of mammalian cradles and museums are intricately shaped by biogeographical processes governed by environmental forces. Uncovering these hidden effects provides insights into the ecological mechanisms by which ongoing climate changes continually shape evolutionary assemblages over time.

Affective foundations in AI-human interactions: Insights from evolutionary continuity and interspecies communications

The imminent arrival of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) compels a reevaluation of AI-human interactions, particularly through affective communication. This research synthesizes insights from evolutionary biology, comparative psychology, and AI development, advocating for a paradigm shift beyond conventional human-like cognitive processes. It emphasizes the universal nature of affective pathways, as evidenced across various species. We introduce three affective interaction models — the Affective Threshold Model, the Dynamic Set-Point Model, and the Affective Schema Model — all of which stem from an in-depth analysis of interspecies communications. These models present a roadmap to craft AI interfaces attuned to human affective experiences, elucidating avenues of trust, intuition, and reciprocal recognition between machines and their human counterparts. By further crystallizing the concept of the “Large Affect Model”, we project a horizon where AI not only deciphers but also empathizes with human partners, paving the way for a revolutionary cooperative paradigm between AI and humanity.

Endosomal catabolism of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate is fundamental in building resilience against pathogens.

Endosomes are characterized by the presence of various phosphoinositides that are essential for defining the membrane properties. However, the interplay between endosomal phosphoinositides metabolism and innate immunity is yet to be fully understood. Here, our findings highlight the evolutionary continuity of RAB-10/Rab10's involvement in regulating innate immunity. Upon infection of C. elegans with P. aeruginosa, an increase in RAB-10 activity was observed in the intestine. Conversely, when RAB-10 was absent, the intestinal diacylglycerols (DAGs) decreased, and the animal's response to the pathogen was impaired. Further research revealed that UNC-16/JIP3 acts as an RAB-10 effector, facilitating the recruitment of phospholipase EGL-8 to endosomes. This leads to a decrease in endosomal PI(4,5)P2 and an elevation of DAGs, as well as the activation of the PMK-1/p38 MAPK innate immune pathway. It is noteworthy that the dimerization of UNC-16 is a prerequisite for its interaction with RAB-10(GTP) and the recruitment of EGL-8. Moreover, we ascertained that the rise in RAB-10 activity, due to infection, was attributed to the augmented expression of LET-413/Erbin, and the nuclear receptor NHR-25/NR5A1/2 was determined to be indispensable for this increase. Hence, this study illuminates the significance of endosomal PI(4,5)P2 catabolism in boosting innate immunity, and outlines an NHR-25-mediated mechanism for pathogen detection in intestinal epithelia.

The Discovery and Evolution of a Possible New Epoch of Cometary Activity by the Centaur (2060) Chiron

Centaurs are small solar system objects on chaotic orbits in the giant planet region, forming an evolutionary continuum with the Kuiper Belt objects and Jupiter-family comets. Some Centaurs are known to exhibit cometary activity, though unlike comets, this activity tends not to correlate with heliocentric distance, and the mechanism behind it is currently poorly understood. We utilize serendipitous observations from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, Zwicky Transient Facility, Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, Dark Energy Survey, and Gaia in addition to targeted follow-up observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory, TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope South (TRAPPIST-South), and Gemini North telescope to analyze an unexpected brightening exhibited by the known active Centaur (2060) Chiron in 2021. This is highly indicative of a cometary outburst. As of 2023 February, Chiron had still not returned to its prebrightening magnitude. We find Chiron's rotational lightcurve, phase curve effects, and possible high-albedo surface features to be unlikely causes of this observed brightening. We consider the most likely cause to be an epoch of either new or increased cometary activity, though we cannot rule out a possible contribution from Chiron's reported ring system, such as a collision of as-yet-unseen satellites shepherding the rings. We find no evidence for a coma in our Gemini or TRAPPIST-South observations, though this does not preclude the possibility that Chiron is exhibiting a coma that is too faint for observation or constrained to the immediate vicinity of the nucleus.

A Post-Darwinian Fable: Canine Narration in The Call of the Wild

The paper reads Jack London’s The Call of the Wild as a post-Darwinian fable that challenges the anthropomorphism and sentimentality in the notoriously charged genre of the animal fable. London’s post-Darwinian representation of canine narration in an evolutionary continuum seeks to deconstruct the inherent hierarchy embedded in the fable. Through a reconciliation of the animal fable’s internal and external conflict, London aims to draw an ethical critique of amoral aspects of social Darwinism that underlies the American industry culture at the turn of the century. The remapping of humanity/animality, progression/regression, and the society/the wild within a bispecies environment for coevolution embodies London’s endeavor to rescue the reputation of the genre of fable from a conventional naturalist mode. London’s proclaimed vigor and science in the critique of animal fable further aspire to redeem the feminized professionalism of writing.

NK-like CD8 T cell: one potential evolutionary continuum between adaptive memory and innate immunity.

CD8 T cells are crucial adaptive immune cells with cytotoxicity to fight against pathogens or abnormal self-cells via major histocompatibility complex class I-dependent priming pathways. The composition of the memory CD8 T-cell pool is influenced by various factors. Physiological aging, chronic viral infection, and autoimmune diseases promote the accumulation of CD8 T cells with highly differentiated memory phenotypes. Accumulating studies have shown that some of these memory CD8 T cells also exhibit innate-like cytotoxicity and upregulate the expression of receptors associated with natural killer (NK) cells. Further analysis shows that these NK-like CD8 T cells have transcriptional profiles of both NK and CD8 T cells, suggesting the transformation of CD8 T cells into NK cells. However, the specific induction mechanism underlying NK-like transformation and the implications of this process for CD8 T cells are still unclear. This review aimed to deduce the possible differentiation model of NK-like CD8 T cells, summarize the functions of major NK-cell receptors expressed on these cells, and provide a new perspective for exploring the role of these CD8 T cells in health and disease.

Teilhardian Evolutionism: A philosophical reconsideration

Philosophers, right from the Classical Greek period, have grappled with the problem of the origin, nature, and future of the universe. On one pole of the debate evolutionists who see the universe as an organism in the process of cosmic evolution. On the other pole of the debate are creationists who hold that reality was created by a supreme being. Interestingly, this debate has led to heated disagreements between these two rival camps. In the face of this problem, this work explores the view of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who proposes a unique theory of evolution which integrates some ideas of the creationists. This cosmic evolution, according to him, is the ongoing and unfolding process of the creative impulse, which is personalized in the human person until it reaches its apex in personal relationship with the transcendent at the Omega Point. This work attempts to expose Teilhard de Chardin’s entire theory of cosmic evolution; the stages of the process of cosmic evolution, the laws which govern the process and the end to which it tends, that is, the Omega Point. It points out the strengths and weaknesses of his arguments as well as the implications of his entire theory for the present human society. In the final analysis, this research work maintains that despite its obvious downsides, Teilhard de Chardin’s Evolutionism is remarkable for its synthesis of science with religion, its revelation of the uniqueness of the emergence of internet in the evolutionary continuum and its prognostication of a glorious future predestined for the cosmos from the very onset of evolution. Analytic method of research was employed.

Evolutionary trajectory of diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants at the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak.

Despite extensive scientific efforts directed toward the evolutionary trajectory of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in humans at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, it remains unclear how the virus jumped into and evolved in humans so far. Herein, we recruited almost all adult coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases appeared locally or imported from abroad during the first 8 months of the outbreak in Shanghai. From these patients, SARS-CoV-2 genomes occupying the important phylogenetic positions in the virus phylogeny were recovered. Phylogenetic and mutational landscape analyses of viral genomes recovered here and those collected in and outside of China revealed that all known SARS-CoV-2 variants exhibited the evolutionary continuity despite the co-circulation of multiple lineages during the early period of the epidemic. Various mutations have driven the rapid SARS-CoV-2 diversification, and some of them favor its better adaptation and circulation in humans, which may have determined the waxing and waning of various lineages.

Calls of the little auk (Alle alle) chicks reflect their behavioural contexts.

Animal vocalisations can often inform conspecifics about the behavioural context of production and the underlying affective states, hence revealing whether a situation should be approached or avoided. While this is particularly important for socially complex species, little is known about affective expression in wild colonial animals, and even less to about their young. We studied vocalisations of the little auk (Alle alle) chicks in the Hornsund breeding colony, Svalbard. Little auks are highly colonial seabirds, and adults convey complex behavioural contexts through their calls. We recorded chick calls during two contexts of opposite affective valence: handing by a human, and while they interact with their parents inside the nest. Using permuted discriminant function analysis and a series of linear mixed models, we examined the effect of the production context/associated affective valence on the acoustic parameters of those calls. Calls were reliably classified to their context, with over 97% accuracy. Calls uttered during handling had higher mean entropy, fundamental frequency, as well as lower spectral centre of gravity and a less steep spectral slope compared to calls produced during interactions with a parent inside the nest. The individuality of handling calls, assessed by information content, was lower than the individuality of calls uttered in the nest. These findings suggest that seabird chicks can effectively communicate behavioural/affective contexts through calls, conveying socially important messages early in development. Our results are mostly in line with emotional expression patterns observed across taxa, supporting their evolutionary continuity.

Evolutionary continuity and divergence of auditory dorsal and ventral pathways in primates revealed by ultra-high field diffusion MRI

Auditory dorsal and ventral pathways in the human brain play important roles in supporting speech and language processing. However, the evolutionary root of the dual auditory pathways in the primate brain is unclear. By parcellating the auditory cortex of marmosets (a New World monkey species), macaques (an Old World monkey species), and humans using the same individual-based analysis method and tracking the pathways from the auditory cortex based on multi-shell diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI), homologous auditory dorsal and ventral fiber tracks were identified in these primate species. The ventral pathway was found to be well conserved in all three primate species analyzed but extend to more anterior temporal regions in humans. In contrast, the dorsal pathway showed a divergence between monkey and human brains. First, frontal regions in the human brain have stronger connections to the higher-level auditory regions than to the lower-level auditory regions along the dorsal pathway, while frontal regions in the monkey brain show opposite connection patterns along the dorsal pathway. Second, the left lateralization of the dorsal pathway is only found in humans. Moreover, the connectivity strength of the dorsal pathway in marmosets is more similar to that of humans than macaques. These results demonstrate the continuity and divergence of the dual auditory pathways in the primate brains along the evolutionary path, suggesting that the putative neural networks supporting human speech and language processing might have emerged early in primate evolution.

Machine translation +Post-editing: Translation process analysis of a science text from English to Chinese

Translation conveys ideas from one language to another for the purpose of communication, spreading culture and knowledge as well as promoting social civilization. Translators should reproduce the equivalent of the source-language message in terms of both meaning and style. The development of artificial intelligence is closely related to the study of human brain, so English to Chinese translation of the article A Brain for Speech. Evolutionary Continuity in Primate and Human Auditory-Vocal Processing is of considerable significance for Chinese AI workers, medical workers and common people. The translation of this article is completed by commonly used free translation softwares found in internet in mainland China plus painstaking and repeated post-editing by the student translator guided by the professors and experts in different fields. In this report, the “Comprehension, Expression and Adaptation” framework is used to analyse the problems encountered in the process of machine translation and solutions adopted in post translation editing stage to ensure accuracy of the information conveyed in the source text and expression in the target language version.

Ancestral role of Pax6 in chordate brain regionalization.

The Pax6 gene is essential for eye and brain development across various animal species. Here, we investigate the function of Pax6 in the development of the anterior central nervous system (CNS) of the invertebrate chordate amphioxus using CRISPR/Cas9-induced genome editing. Specifically, we examined Pax6 mutants featuring a 6bp deletion encompassing two invariant amino acids in the conserved paired domain, hypothesized to impair Pax6 DNA-binding capacity and gene regulatory functions. Although this mutation did not result in gross morphological changes in amphioxus larvae, it demonstrated a reduced ability to activate Pax6-responsive reporter gene, suggesting a hypomorphic effect. Expression analysis in mutant larvae revealed changes in gene expression within the anterior CNS, supporting the conserved role of Pax6 gene in brain regionalization across chordates. Additionally, our findings lend support to the hypothesis of a zona limitans intrathalamica (ZLI)-like region in amphioxus, suggesting evolutionary continuity in brain patterning mechanisms. ZLI region, found in both hemichordates and vertebrates, functions as a key signaling center and serves as a restrictive boundary between major thalamic regions.

Sketches of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) hoo’s: vowels by any other name?

In human speech, the close back rounded vowel /u/ (the vowel in “boot”) is articulated with the tongue arched toward the dorsal boundary of the hard palate, with the pharyngeal cavity open. Acoustic and perceptual properties of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) hoo’s are similar to those of the human vowel /u/. However, the vocal tract morphology of chimpanzees likely limits their phonetic capabilities, so that it is unlikely, or even impossible, that their articulation is comparable to that of a human. To determine how qualities of the vowel /u/ may be achieved given the chimpanzee vocal tract, we calculated transfer functions of the vocal tract area for tube models of vocal tract configurations in which vocal tract length, length and area of a laryngeal air sac simulacrum, length of lip protrusion, and area of lip opening were systematically varied. The method described is principally acoustic; we make no claim as to the actual shape of the chimpanzee vocal tract during call production. Nonetheless, we demonstrate that it may be possible to achieve the acoustic and perceptual qualities of back vowels without a reconfigured human vocal tract. The results, while tentative, suggest that the production of hoo’s by chimpanzees, while achieving comparable vowel-like qualities to the human /u/, may involve articulatory gestures that are beyond the range of the human articulators. The purpose of this study was to (1) stimulate further simulation research on great ape articulation, and (2) show that apparently vowel-like phenomena in nature are not necessarily indicative of evolutionary continuity per se.

Shallow‐marine calciclastic mass‐transport deposits in an evolving thrust‐top basin: A case study from the North Dalmatian foreland basin, Croatia

AbstractMass‐transport deposits are products of resedimentation phenomena involving a broad spectrum of gravity‐driven processes, and commonly have a high preservation potential in deep‐marine environments. This study documents various types of mass‐transport deposits that are interbedded with intensely bioturbated shallow‐marine calciclastic sediments deposited along a reflective coast during the middle and late Eocene. The sedimentary succession, located in the vicinity of Novigrad in northern Dalmatia, Croatia, comprises sediments deposited in a range of nearshore and carbonate ramp environments, and represents the infill of a thrust‐top (piggyback) basin of the North Dalmatian foreland basin. Five types of mass‐transport deposits, ranging in thickness from 13 cm to 6 m, have been identified: (i) calcilutite and calcarenite slumps; (ii) conglomeratic slump‐debrites with a ‘dough‐like’ appearance; (iii) blocky‐flow deposits bearing large blocks of beachface and/or shoreface deposits; (iv) rockfall deposits comprising scattered blocks of beachface conglomerates and shoreface calcarenites; and (v) ‘classical’ matrix‐supported debrites. Calciturbidites are rare and mainly comprise Ta and Tb divisions. Conglomeratic slump‐debrites are mostly found in association with offshore‐transition deposits, suggesting that mass flows were triggered above the storm‐wave base likely due to a combined effect of: (i) strong earthquakes related to the tectonic development of the basin; (ii) sediment destabilization due to pore‐water overpressure during forced regressions; and (iii) storm‐wave loading affecting the shallow seabed. Progressive deepening likely favoured mass‐flow transformations, although the overall paucity of turbidites suggests relatively short mass‐flow transport distance and turbidity current bypass to deeper realms. Multiple erosion phases and resedimentation processes from the Cretaceous to the late Eocene contributed to the diverse suite of extraformational clasts in the mass‐transport deposits studied. The mass‐transport deposits may be triggered and emplaced in shallow‐marine settings mainly during regressive stages of basin development, as the diverse gravel clast composition suggests significant tectonic influence. Although the mass‐transport deposits reported herein are relatively small, some of their peculiar sedimentary features and occurrence within shallow‐marine calciclastic deposits render them rather unique and suitable for a re‐assessment of the nature and evolutionary continuum of processes involved in subaqueous sediment mass transport, as well as the preservation potential of sedimentary features in high‐energy wave‐reworked environments.

An evolutionary continuum from nucleated dwarf galaxies to star clusters.

Systematic studies1-4 have revealed hundreds of ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs5) in the nearby Universe. With half-light radii rh of approximately 10-100 parsecs and stellar masses M* ≈ 106-108 solar masses, UCDs are among the densest known stellar systems6. Although similar in appearance to massive globular clusters7, the detection of extended stellar envelopes4,8,9, complex star formation histories10, elevated mass-to-light ratio11,12 and supermassive black holes13-16 suggest that some UCDs are remnant nuclear star clusters17 of tidally stripped dwarf galaxies18,19, or even ancient compact galaxies20. However, only a few objects have been found in the transient stage of tidal stripping21,22, and this assumed evolutionary path19 has never been fully traced by observations. Here we show that 106 galaxies in the Virgo cluster have morphologies that are intermediate between normal, nucleated dwarf galaxies and single-component UCDs, revealing a continuum that fully maps this morphological transition and fills the 'size gap' between star clusters and galaxies. Their spatial distribution and redder colour are also consistent with stripped satellite galaxies on their first few pericentric passages around massive galaxies23. The 'ultra-diffuse' tidal features around several of these galaxies directly show how UCDs are forming through tidal stripping and that this evolutionary path can include an early phase as a nucleated ultra-diffuse galaxy24,25. These UCDs represent substantial visible fossil remnants of ancient dwarf galaxies in galaxy clusters, and more low-mass remnants probably remain to be found.

DMRT1 is a testis-determining gene in rabbits and is also essential for female fertility

DMRT1 is the testis-determining factor in several species of vertebrates, but its involvement in mammalian testes differentiation, where SRY is the testis-determining gene, remains ambiguous. So far, DMRT1 loss-of-function has been described in two mammalian species and induces different phenotypes: Disorders of Sex Development (46, XY DSD) in men and male infertility in mice. We thus abolished DMRT1 expression by CRISPR/Cas9 in a third species of mammal, the rabbit. First, we observed that gonads from XY DMRT1−/− rabbit fetuses differentiated like ovaries, highlighting that DMRT1 is involved in testis determination. In addition to SRY, DMRT1 is required in the supporting cells to increase the expression of the SOX9 gene, which heads the testicular genetic cascade. Second, we highlighted another function of DMRT1 in the germline since XX and XY DMRT1−/− ovaries did not undergo meiosis and folliculogenesis. XX DMRT1−/− adult females were sterile, showing that DMRT1 is also crucial for female fertility. To conclude, these phenotypes indicate an evolutionary continuum between non-mammalian vertebrates such as birds and non-rodent mammals. Furthermore, our data support the potential involvement of DMRT1 mutations in different human pathologies, such as 46, XY DSD as well as male and female infertility.

DMRT1 is a testis-determining gene in rabbits and is also essential for female fertility.

DMRT1 is the testis-determining factor in several species of vertebrates, but its involvement in mammalian testes differentiation, where SRY is the testis-determining gene, remains ambiguous. So far, DMRT1 loss-of-function has been described in two mammalian species and induces different phenotypes: Disorders of Sex Development (46, XY DSD) in men and male infertility in mice. We thus abolished DMRT1 expression by CRISPR/Cas9 in a third species of mammal, the rabbit. First, we observed that gonads from XY DMRT1-/- rabbit fetuses differentiated like ovaries, highlighting that DMRT1 is involved in testis determination. In addition to SRY, DMRT1 is required in the supporting cells to increase the expression of the SOX9 gene, which heads the testicular genetic cascade. Second, we highlighted another function of DMRT1 in the germline since XX and XY DMRT1-/- ovaries did not undergo meiosis and folliculogenesis. XX DMRT1-/- adult females were sterile, showing that DMRT1 is also crucial for female fertility. To conclude, these phenotypes indicate an evolutionary continuum between non-mammalian vertebrates such as birds and non-rodent mammals. Furthermore, our data support the potential involvement of DMRT1 mutations in different human pathologies, such as 46, XY DSD as well as male and female infertility.