Monday, May 02, 2011

Human Chimeras

So I recently came across an article about Human Chimeras.

Summary:


Fraternal twins: two eggs, two sperms, two different babies. So basically if 2 eggs get released during ovulation and then sex occurs, you get fraternal twins:



Idea is simple, and in fact many people were actually fraternal twins at one point early on after fertilization. Oops, but you're not a twin now are you (unless you are...). So what happened? I'll tell you what happened: You ate your twin.

No joke, sometime along the early reproduction period your fertilized egg "fused" together with that of your twin, but your DNA survived... or so was supposedly the case. Not so for Human Chimeras, whose twin's DNA still exist in some part of their body.

If you read the article, it talks of a woman who's children are not really her children, but rather that of her 'dead' twin. This is because her twin's DNA survived in this woman's ovaries. Shock. There was also a case of a man who had ovaries because his twin was female. Rare cases, but pretty awesome.

So this got me thinking, what if we could take the DNA of these Chimeras' twins and use in vitro to create a 'clone' of said twin? It would allow these Chimeras to apologize for eating their sibling. Of course I suppose the dead twin's DNA would have to be less specialized cell, not sure if ovary cells would work. Still, just a thought.

Also thought maybe people who hear voices in their head might be hearing the voice of their twin whose DNA may have sneaked in through the brain or something... probably not, but I wouldn't mind hearing the voice of my twin once in a while.

This being said, I don't believe there is yet any way to know if you were in fact a twin-eater. So let's all just continue to live in blissful ignorance for now! I'll make sure to have my children's DNA analyzed upon birth just to be sure though.

1 comment:

  1. I think there was a House episode on this phenomenon a few seasons back. Interesting stuff for sure :)

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