CHIMERA

Chimera

A chimera or chimaera is a single organism that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic. Chimeras are formed from at least four parent cells . Each population of cells keeps its own character and the resulting organism is a mixture of tissues. Chimeras are typically seen in animals; there are some reports of human chimerism.

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Chimera (genetics)
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chimera

Noun

  1. Chimera, or any fantastic creature with parts from different animals
  2. A vain, foolish, or incongruous fancy, or creature of the imagination; as, the chimera of an author
  3. An organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two zygotes
  4. A gargoyle
  5. (usually chimaera) A cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout, long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: chimera
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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