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There are small microscopic marine animals called bdelloids who seem to have acquired genes from bacteria that they use to fight against fungus. It is common for bacteria and archea to spread genes between one another(horizontally acquired genes) for factors such as antibiotic resistance, but the horizontal aquirement of genes from prokaryotes of eukaryotes is somewhat rare or between eukaryotes. In eukaryotes genes are usually moved around through sexual reproduction. Bdelloids appear to have extremely diverse genes despite only reproducing asexually, and 10% of those genes are from bacteria, plants and fungi. The rate at gene transfer right now however appears to be too low to make up for the lack of sexual reproduction. They discovered that when responding to pathogens such as fungi, the acquired genes from other species appear to be used more. This discovery was made by introducing pathogens to them in the lab and looking at the RNA in the cell to know which genes were expressed. The HGT gene which is used in defense and is aquired is also seen in fungi but is not that common in other animals. This all shows that some animals do naturally acquire genes from other organisms.

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