The unusual story of Taylor Mule, in the body of which two people live (4 photos)

Taylor Mule - American singer has been special since childhood. And at there was a perfect line on her stomach that contrastedly divided the body into two parts. Normal skin color and hot pink.





Both parts of the body reacted differently to insect bites. If a The "bodily" reacted traditionally, then in the second half everything swelled up.

The adventure didn't end there. The Mule has grown a double tooth. And in Later, she was found to be allergic to more than 150 foods!

The girl suffered for a long time with her birthmark. Taylor even tried to remove the stain with a laser, but in her own words, “This it hurt too much."

In 2009, Taylor learned that she had chimerism. That is, she has two set of DNA, each containing the genetic code for a particular person. In fact, two people coexist in her body.

This rare condition can occur during fetal development. At The mule was most likely a twin she devoured in the womb.

It could have happened quite humanely. For example, if one embryo dies in early pregnancy, and some of its cells are "absorbed" another twin. This happens only in the case of fraternal twins.



In biology, chimeras are called animals that consist of heterogeneous cells from several zygotes, that is, cells that have arisen in the result of fertilization. A rare event.

Chimerism doesn't just happen to humans. Male tortoiseshell cats often are chimeras. Their bifurcated coloration is the result of a fusion two different embryos. Most of the time they are not fertile. It happens because the extra DNA they get binds the trait their color with infertility. But not only humans and animals have chimerism

Interesting fact: Human and animal chimeras can have two different blood types at the same time. The number of each group blood may be the same. For example, in one case, the chimera has blood consisted of 61 percent of the first group and 39 percent of the fourth groups.

This is also possible in plants, and this property is active in them. used by breeders. They are obtained by grafting genetically different parents, different varieties or different species (which may belong to different families). Tissues may partially fuse after vaccinations, forming a single growing organism that retains both types tissue in one run.

They try to get chimeras artificially from animals, but they organization is much more complex. Cells between different species is not easy take root. For example, an attempt to make a chimera of a monkey and a pig by monkey cell transplantation led to a violation of proportions. Have a pig on every 10 thousand of its cells, only 1 of the monkeys remained.



In cases where there are different sets of sex chromosomes (XX and XY), it can affect the internal and external genital organs of a person. For example, this can lead to a person being a hermaphrodite.

Chimerism Taylor Mule from California led to an autoimmune disease, because her body perceives the twin's DNA as "foreign" and reacts to it. She has a number of food allergies, medicines, supplements, jewelry, and insect bites.

But if Taylor is lucky enough to understand why this is happening, then another story - with Lydia Fairchild sounds like crazy.



Lydia Fairchild

She was pregnant with her third child when she separated from her husband Jamie Townsend. In 2002, Fairchild filed for recovery alimony. As part of this, she went through the process of proving paternity.

The results were shocking. A DNA test showed that Townsend was definitely is the father of the children. But the result ruled out the possibility that Lydia is their mother. The test showed only that there is a relationship of children with their grandmother - mother of Lydia.

Fairchild was accused of fraud, claiming benefits for strangers children or participating in a surrogacy scam, and records of her previous births have been questioned.

Prosecutors demanded that her two children be taken away from her, believing that they they don't belong to her. When it's time to have a third child, Judge ordered that an observer be present at the birth, so that the child and Fairchild immediately took blood samples and that they were ready to give indications. Two weeks later, DNA tests showed that she also did not is the mother of this child.

The breakthrough came when her defensesNick Alan Tindell found out about Karen Keegan is a chimera woman from Boston. And suggested that Fairchild might be the same opportunity.

Although the DNA in Fairchild's skin and hair did not match that of her children, DNA from a cervical smear matched. Fairchild carried two different sets of DNA, which is a defining characteristic chimerism.