Apparently, splicing DNA from one animal into another to create a genetic hybrid isn't a science fiction movie. Peng Peng the sheep has made it a science fact. The newly cloned lamb has become the first sheep to have a worm spliced into him, making him the first worm sheep on the planet.
But its not something gross out of a Human Centipede experiment. You can't actually tell that he's a genetic hybrid by looking at him.
Researchers took a gene from the model organism C. elegans, a nematode worm, and blended it with Peng Peng's DNA that makes him better to eat, which gets his to produce "good" fat rather than the standard "bad fat" you find in an animal. The lead researcher behind the project, Du Yutao from the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen, told Reuters:
"The gene was originally from the C. elegans (roundworm), which has been shown (in previous studies) to increase unsaturated fatty acids which is very good for human health."