Aphids acquired symbiotic genes via lateral gene transfer

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Abstract
Aphids possess bacteriocytes, which are cells specifically differentiated to harbour the obligate mutualist Buchnera aphidicola (γ-Proteobacteria). Buchnera has lost many of the genes that appear to be essential for bacterial life. From the bacteriocyte of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum, we previously identified two clusters of expressed sequence tags that display similarity only to bacterial genes. Southern blot analysis demonstrated that they are encoded in the aphid genome. In this study, in order to assess the possibility of lateral gene transfer, we determined the full-length sequences of these transcripts, and performed detailed structural and phylogenetic analyses. We further examined their expression levels in the bacteriocyte using real-time quantitative RT-PCR.