#Chimera genetics skin

They work together anyway, as if they were all created from the same zygote. At this point, the cells haven't started to build body parts.Īfter the fusion, a given cell can't tell that its neighboring cell actually has a different set of chromosomes. The reason this isn’t the case is because the fusion of the two eggs happens very early on in development. Shouldn't a fusion of two people look different? Wouldn’t it have two heads or four arms or something?

#Chimera genetics skin

You could potentially see patchy areas on the skin or two different colored eyes, but even these are pretty subtle changes. You probably wouldn't be able to tell that the person was a chimera. Most chimeras grow up normally and look like everyone else. So the baby would have two different sets of DNA - this baby would be a chimera. Remember, every zygote carries its own unique set of DNA. This baby would have cells from not one, but two different zygotes (or fertilized eggs). Now, imagine that instead of developing separately, these fertilized eggs fuse together. Fraternal twins are equally as related as any pair of siblings. If both of these eggs get fertilized by two different sperm cells, you get fraternal twins. Imagine that inside of a womb, instead of there being only one egg, there are actually two. Some of their cells have the DNA of one person and the other cells have the DNA of another person. We use the word today to describe the same basic idea: someone who is made up of parts from multiple individuals.Ī person who is a chimera is made up of cells from different people.

The word 'chimera' comes from a creature in Greek mythology that had body parts from a goat, a lion and a serpent.