Gene transfer among invertebrates is much more common than
originally thought. Invertebrate genomes have faced recurrent
invasions of transposable elements and viruses and remnants of 
these invaders constitute a major component of these genomes.
What could be the possible impact of these relatively common
HGT phenomena in invertebrates in the context of insect rearing
for food and other potential uses of insects in agriculture?

First it is possible that with the development of an "insects for
food and feed" industry it will be of interest to use cultivated
strains having particular properties and that it will be envisioned
to use genetically modified organisms. In the debate concerning
the use of the new technology CRISPR/Cas9 (Bosley et al., 2015)
allowing easier edition of invertebrate genomes it is important to
stress that the frequency of gene exchanges in eukaryotes is most
probably largely underestimated, we are probably only seeing the
tip of the iceberg. 

If the new technology of insect genome editing
(such as Crisper/Cas9) were used to modify the genome of
reared insects it is important to take into account the risk that an
introduced gene could potentially be transferred. Indeed, there is
a probability, although difficult to evaluate given the current
knowledge, that genes can be transferred to other species at some
point by viruses. The choice of genes to be introduced or modified
should be carefully studied. It would for example be extremely
detrimental to spread an insecticide resistance gene in different
insect species.

Drezen, J-M., et al. "Foreign DNA acquisition by invertebrate genomes." 
Journal of invertebrate pathology 147 (2017): 157-168.

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