Vibrionaceae represent a significant portion of the cultivable heterotrophic sea bacteria, they strongly affect nutrient cycling and some species are devastating pathogens. In this work we propose an improved phylogenetic profile analysis on 14 Vibrionaceae genomes, to study the evolution of this family on the basis of gene content. The phylogenetic profile is based on the observation that genes involved in the same process (e.g. metabolic pathway or structural complex) tend to be concurrently present or absent within different genomes. This allows the prediction of hypothetical functions on the basis of a shared phylogenetic profiles. Moreover this approach is useful to identify putative laterally transferred elements on the basis of their presence on distantly phylogenetically related bacteria.