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Chimerism

So with the latest chimeric foal thats going around, I was wondering, what would a chimera look like of two different types? I'm talking if you were to artificially make one, like they do with mice in labs, but used two different breeds, even extreme breeds like an arab and a draft horse. Would it be like a regular hybrid or would one set of dna be dominant? I don't see an issue with it not working either as they artificially make goat/sheep hybrids. http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/1x605…

Daylene Alford Wed, 05/28/2014 - 22:46

I'm not sure exactly...a chimera is truly a mix of DNA meaning that some pieces of the puzzle are from one animals and some from another.  So you could theoretically get one leg from one animal and one from another.  If there was a large difference in size in the pieces i'm not sure the animal would be viable.  With natural chimeras this isn't an issue because the animals are full siblings so have much of their dna in common already.  

CMhorses Thu, 05/29/2014 - 20:55

In reply to by Daylene Alford

See that's what I was wondering about, perhaps if you were to artificially try it, use just slightly different typed animals. How different are goats/sheep? size wise, because those artificial chimeras look pretty normal, none have tiny legs or something.

Daylene Alford Mon, 06/02/2014 - 10:33

Sheep and Goats can create natural hybrids.  It's rare but it does happen.  It might also depend on when the embryos fused and how well mixed the cells are.  When they create artificial chimera I'm sure they mix the cells pretty well and really early before the cells start to differentiate between organs etc.