This article is from the WSSF 2011 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

Submitted by Mayumi Anderson, Fresno, CA

Scientists are artificially producing Chimera mice by mixing stem cells from two different species such as combining a wood mouse with a house mouse which showed physiological and behavioral characteristics of both species, a rat and mouse where a rat pancreas was created in a mouse, and a rat thymus gland produced in a mouse, among others. Chimeras are animals that have a mixture of cells from both donors where a hybrid is the fusion of gametes (sperm and egg) into one zygote (beginning of an embryo).