diff --git a/gfx/tests/gtest/TestTextures.cpp b/gfx/tests/gtest/TestTextures.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..fa255ba698a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gfx/tests/gtest/TestTextures.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+/* vim:set ts=2 sw=2 sts=2 et: */
+/* Any copyright is dedicated to the Public Domain.
+ * http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
+ */
+
+#include "gtest/gtest.h"
+#include "gmock/gmock.h"
+
+#include "mozilla/layers/TextureClient.h"
+#include "mozilla/layers/TextureHost.h"
+#include "gfx2DGlue.h"
+#include "gfxImageSurface.h"
+
+using namespace gfx;
+using namespace mozilla;
+using namespace mozilla::layers;
+
+/*
+ * This test performs the following actions:
+ * - creates a surface
+ * - initialize a texture client with it
+ * - serilaizes the texture client
+ * - deserializes the data into a texture host
+ * - reads the surface from the texture host.
+ *
+ * The surface in the end should be equal to the inital one.
+ * This test is run for different combinations of texture types and
+ * image formats.
+ */
+
+
+// fills the surface with values betwee 0 and 100.
+void SetupSurface(gfxImageSurface* surface) {
+  int bpp = gfxASurface::BytePerPixelFromFormat(surface->Format());
+  int stride = surface->Stride();
+  uint8_t val = 0;
+  uint8_t* data = surface->Data();
+  for (int y = 0; y < surface->Height(); ++y) {
+    for (int x = 0; x < surface->Height(); ++x) {
+      for (int b = 0; b < bpp; ++b) {
+        data[y*stride + x*bpp + b] = val;
+        if (val == 100) {
+          val = 0;
+        } else {
+          ++val;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+// return true if two surfaces contain the same data
+void AssertSurfacesEqual(gfxImageSurface* surface1,
+                         gfxImageSurface* surface2)
+{
+  ASSERT_EQ(surface1->GetSize(), surface2->GetSize());
+  ASSERT_EQ(surface1->Format(), surface2->Format());
+
+  uint8_t* data1 = surface1->Data();
+  uint8_t* data2 = surface2->Data();
+  int stride1 = surface1->Stride();
+  int stride2 = surface2->Stride();
+  int bpp = gfxASurface::BytePerPixelFromFormat(surface1->Format());
+
+  for (int y = 0; y < surface1->Height(); ++y) {
+    for (int x = 0; x < surface1->Width(); ++x) {
+      for (int b = 0; b < bpp; ++b) {
+        ASSERT_EQ(data1[y*stride1 + x*bpp + b],
+                  data2[y*stride2 + x*bpp + b]);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+// Run the test for a texture client and a surface
+void TestTextureClientSurface(TextureClient* texture, gfxImageSurface* surface) {
+
+  // client allocation
+  ASSERT_TRUE(texture->AsTextureClientSurface() != nullptr);
+  TextureClientSurface* client = texture->AsTextureClientSurface();
+  client->AllocateForSurface(ToIntSize(surface->GetSize()));
+  ASSERT_TRUE(texture->IsAllocated());
+
+  // client painting
+  client->UpdateSurface(surface);
+
+  nsRefPtr<gfxASurface> aSurface = client->GetAsSurface();
+  nsRefPtr<gfxImageSurface> clientSurface = aSurface->GetAsImageSurface();
+
+  ASSERT_TRUE(texture->Lock(OPEN_READ_ONLY));
+  AssertSurfacesEqual(surface, clientSurface);
+  texture->Unlock();
+
+  // client serialization
+  texture->SetID(1);
+  SurfaceDescriptor descriptor;
+  ASSERT_TRUE(texture->ToSurfaceDescriptor(descriptor));
+
+  ASSERT_NE(descriptor.type(), SurfaceDescriptor::Tnull_t);
+
+  // host deserialization
+  RefPtr<TextureHost> host = CreateBackendIndependentTextureHost(texture->GetID(),
+                                                                 descriptor, nullptr,
+                                                                 texture->GetFlags());
+
+  ASSERT_TRUE(host.get() != nullptr);
+  ASSERT_EQ(host->GetFlags(), texture->GetFlags());
+  ASSERT_EQ(host->GetID(), texture->GetID());
+
+  // host read
+  ASSERT_TRUE(host->Lock());
+  nsRefPtr<gfxImageSurface> hostSurface = host->GetAsSurface();
+  host->Unlock();
+
+  AssertSurfacesEqual(surface, hostSurface.get());
+
+  // host deallocation
+  host->DeallocateSharedData();
+}
+
+TEST(Layers, TextureSerialization) {
+  // the test is run on all the following image formats
+  gfxASurface::gfxImageFormat formats[3] = {
+    gfxASurface::ImageFormatARGB32,
+    gfxASurface::ImageFormatRGB24,
+    gfxASurface::ImageFormatA8,
+  };
+
+  for (int f = 0; f < 3; ++f) {
+    RefPtr<gfxImageSurface> surface = new gfxImageSurface(gfxIntSize(400,300), formats[f]);
+    SetupSurface(surface.get());
+    AssertSurfacesEqual(surface, surface);
+
+    RefPtr<TextureClient> client
+      = new MemoryTextureClient(nullptr,
+                                mozilla::gfx::ImageFormatToSurfaceFormat(surface->Format()),
+                                TEXTURE_FLAGS_DEFAULT);
+
+    TestTextureClientSurface(client, surface);
+
+    // XXX - Test more texture client types.
+  }
+}
diff --git a/gfx/tests/gtest/moz.build b/gfx/tests/gtest/moz.build
index 95d1af04f27e..8905613929df 100644
--- a/gfx/tests/gtest/moz.build
+++ b/gfx/tests/gtest/moz.build
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ GTEST_CPP_SOURCES += [
     'TestTiledLayerBuffer.cpp',
     'TestRegion.cpp',
     'TestColorNames.cpp',
+    'TestTextures.cpp',
 ]
 
 # Because of gkmedia on windows we wont find these