ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

De novo gene birth

Okay kiddo, imagine you are playing with play-doh. You have different colors and shapes, right? Now imagine your play-doh is like the DNA of a living thing. DNA has building blocks called genes that tell the body what to do and how to function.

Sometimes, when two living things, like mommy and daddy, have a baby, the baby gets traits from both of them. But sometimes, a gene can be created out of nowhere in the baby's DNA. It's like a completely new and unique play-doh shape that no one else had before.

This process of creating a new gene from scratch is called de novo gene birth. Scientists have found out that this can happen in different ways, like by random mutations or even by pieces of other genes coming together to form a new one.

It's a very exciting discovery because it shows that evolution and the creation of new life forms is a constantly ongoing process. And who knows, maybe one day, we might even discover a completely new play-doh shape that no one has ever seen before!