It is a very rare phenomenon that was discovered by a couple: chimerism. They realized that their baby did not have the dad’s DNA but that of his uncle…
Parents made a big discovery when their baby was born. They wondered after receiving their child’s blood type, it was neither his mother’s nor his father’s. They therefore did a paternity test in order to clarify the information they received. And again, the results of the paternity test left them speechless, it was negative… Automatically the dad thought that his wife had cheated on him or that their baby had been switched at birth, but that was not the case!
To have this baby, the couple went through an assisted reproduction process, so they also considered an error due to artificial insemination. But again, they were on the wrong track. In order to find out the truth, the doctors therefore carried out further examinations and came to a conclusion: the baby carries the DNA of the daddy’s twin brother. But this twin brother was never born… It is therefore a rare phenomenon that was discovered by doctors: chimerism and this would only affect 1 birth in 46 billion.
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What is chimerism?
We speak of chimerism when an organism has two populations of genetically distinct cells, ie two DNAs. This phenomenon can occur during a double fertilization. Indeed, the twins here have two different genetic heritages. And in this specific case, the two fetuses have fused when they were only at the stage of a few cells. From then on, only one continued to develop normally, with some cells containing DNA from one of the twins, and other cells containing DNA from the other. This is how what is called a chimera, which has two populations of cells with two different genetic heritages.
The missing false twin was indeed a carrier of the blood type found in the child. The husband is therefore theoretically the father of the baby because it produced the sperm that fertilized the eggbut it is not completely because he did not transmit to him the genetic material that mainly constitutes him. The baby thus inherited the DNA of his “uncle”, the “fused twin” of his father. According to Dr Pierrick Hordeit is very likely that cases of chimerism will become more frequent in the years to come with the development of medically assisted procreation.
Journalist
Every day, Lina strives to transcribe with the greatest accuracy and relevance possible the news of families, and to inform them about their health and their rights. Curious and…