A sheep–goat chimera (sometimes called a geep in popular media) is a chimera produced by combining the embryos of a goat and a sheep; the resulting animal has cells of both sheep and goat origin. A sheep-goat chimera should not be confused with a sheep-goat hybrid, which can result when a goat mates with a sheep.
Contents |
History
The first sheep-goat chimera was bred in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, by W.H. Dixon. It was artificially inseminated into 3 goats and 3 sheep in the year 1982.[1] Researchers fused a sheep embryo with a goat embryo. The resulting creature was a mosaic of goat and sheep tissue. Those parts which grew from the sheep embryo were woolly. Those which grew from the goat embryo were hairy.
Characteristics
In a chimera, each set of cells (germ lines) keeps their own species identity instead of being intermediate in type between the parental species. It has four parents, whereas a hybrid has two parents.
A sheep-goat chimera may be fertile, but it will pass on either sheep or goat genes, depending on whether its reproductive (organs) system were formed from the goat embryo or from the sheep embryo (i.e., which germ-line formed the ovaries or testes).
Young sheep-goat chimeras tend to have problems with their vision.[citation needed]
The term shoat is sometimes erroneously used for sheep-goat hybrids and chimeras. The term shoat actually means a young piglet.
See also
References
- ^ "It's a Geep". TIME magazine. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921546,00.html. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
