Horizontally transferred genes (HGTs) are a result of transferred genetic material across species and is not a result of direct descent. HGTs are common in prokaryotes but typically rare in multi-cellular eukaryotes. However, rapid accumulation of genomic information has recently identified increased amounts of exogenous DNA inserts within insect genomes. The majority of the horizontally transferred material is non-functional however evidence shows some genes are expressed and functional in some eukaryotes. In this study we used publically available sequence data and a newly designed bioinformatics pipeline to identify expressed HGTs in the genome of the kissing bug Rhodnius prolixus. We were particularly interested in identifying HGTs that were functional and associated with blood-feeding in arthropods. Therefore, our pipeline was designed to specifically target HGTs that are shared with other blood-feeding arthropods such as the bedbug Cimex lectularisand the mosquito Aedes aegytpti, but are absent in more closely related non-blood-feeding arthropods such as the pea aphid. We will discuss several of the candidate HGTs identified using this methodology in this poster.
