Chimeric gene

Okay kiddo, imagine that genes are like a recipe book for the cells in our body to make different things that we need, like proteins. Sometimes, scientists can take a recipe from one organism, like a chicken, and put it into the recipe book of another organism, like a pig. When they do this, they create a new recipe that is made up of parts from both the chicken and the pig. This new recipe is called a chimeric gene. Just like a chimera in stories is made up of parts from different animals, a chimeric gene is made up of parts from different organisms. The result is that the organism that now has the chimeric gene might have new or different abilities than it did before.