Cold Case Experiment Demonstrates the Potential Utility of Aquatic Microbial Community Assembly in Estimating a Postmortem Submersion Interval.
Animals
Astacoidea
Calliphoridae
Feeding Behavior
Forensic Pathology
/ methods
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
Humans
Immersion
Insecta
Leeches
Male
Microbiota
/ genetics
Models, Animal
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Postmortem Changes
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Statistics as Topic
Swine
Water Microbiology
Young Adult
aquatic habitat
death investigation
decomposition
microbial community assembly
necrobiome
postmortem submersion interval
Journal
Journal of forensic sciences
ISSN: 1556-4029
Titre abrégé: J Forensic Sci
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 0375370
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Jul 2020
Jul 2020
Historique:
received:
14
11
2019
revised:
30
12
2019
accepted:
27
01
2020
pubmed:
20
2
2020
medline:
26
1
2021
entrez:
20
2
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Microbial community assembly (MCA) of both human and nonhuman animal carcasses provides indicators useful for estimating the postmortem interval (PMI) in terrestrial settings. However, there are fewer studies estimating postmortem submersion intervals (PMSIs) in aquatic habitats. No aquatic studies to date assessed MCA in the context of a death investigation, with all previous studies focusing on important basic ecological questions. Within the context of a cold case investigation, we performed an experiment using replicate adult swine carcasses to describe postmortem MCA variability within a nonflowing aquatic habitat. Using high-throughput sequencing of carcass postmortem microbiomes, we described MCA variability and identified key taxa associated with decomposition in an aquatic habitat similar to the cold case body recovery site. We also modeled key taxa for estimating PMSIs, modeling within ±3 days (mean square error) postmortem using random forest regression. Our findings show significant changes in microbial communities as decomposition progressed, and several taxa were identified as important indicator taxa which may be useful for future estimates of PMSI. While descriptive, this study provides initial findings quantifying MCA variability within a nonflowing aquatic habitat. Within the context of the cold case investigation, we discuss how postmortem microbial samples collected at the time of body recovery could have been an important piece of evidence for understanding the PMSI of recovered remains. Additional experimental studies are needed to explicitly test and identify mechanisms associated with postmortem MCA variability in other habitats and under different temperature (e.g., seasons) conditions.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32073664
doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.14303
doi:
Substances chimiques
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1210-1220Subventions
Organisme : Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Organisme : Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Informations de copyright
© 2020 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
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