Potential Use of Microbiota as a Forensics Tool to Determine a Post-Mortem Interval
Rian Roy
University of Minnesota Duluth
Abstract
Recent studies have discovered that cadavers have statistically significant time-, organ-, and sex-dependent changes within the thanatomicrobiome and necrobiome. Additionally, researchers have learned that these changes work together to break down dead organic matter. These studies show a successional change in the thanatomicrobiome corresponds to the five stages of decay. In the early fresh stage, microbes indigenous to the once-living body are most dominant. However, as the corpse enters the bloat stage, bacterial groups that are part of the natural gut microbiome spread as tissue liquefies. Next, as oxygen levels deplete within the corpse as it enters advanced decay, there is a proliferation of obligate anaerobes. Finally, as the corpse begins to skeletonize, the microbiome begins to look more like soil bacterial communities. Further research has indicated that these successional changes may be in response to the physical and chemical changes that occur in the decaying corpse. Because of this apparent correlation, researchers suggest that these microbiotas may prove to be useful to forensic scientists seeking to determine a more narrow post mortem interval. This research is very much still in its infancy and has yet to be proven to be effective enough to function as evidence in the criminal justice system. However, future research may expand on the current research gaps and create a more robust system for tracking bacterial development as correlated to the stages of decay.
