The purpose of this study is to understand the role of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in eukaryote evolution. HGT is known to be widespread in prokaryotes and allows for the rapid acquisition of phenotypic traits. HGT can explain how genes are independently transferred to multiple unrelated species. More recently, it has been found that HGT has allowed for the independent acquisition of traits in multiple distantly unrelated species in a variety of multicellular eukaryotes. In this study,we will identify candidate HGTs, specifically genes that have been transferred to multiple niche-sharing eukaryotic species. The study aims to discover if HGTs are shared by related niche-sharing species and absent from more closely related, but non-niche sharing species. We hypothesize that HGTs May provide ecologically relevant traits to their host species. We used a newly designed bioinformatic pipeline to identify shared HGTs in the genome of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum and other phloem-feeding arthropods. This will test the prediction that shared HGTs are more likely to be found in distantly related, niche sharing species than in closely related, non-niche sharing species. This research will aid in understanding how genome evolution can affect an organism’s ecology.
