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Retrieving forensic information about the donor through bacterial profiling

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Abstract

When fingermarks are left on a surface, bacteria originating from the donor’s skin are also deposited. The skin microbiome is believed to be extremely diverse between individuals, allowing for potential matching between the bacterial communities and touched objects, known as “bacterial profiling”. This study stepped further and investigated how the bacterial profile could be used as an indicator of donor characteristics of potential forensic intelligence interest. Forty-five participants were asked to touch DNA-free playing cards with their dominant and non-dominant hands. Cards were swabbed and bacterial communities determined through 16S rRNA sequencing. Diversity and abundance of bacteria were compared to donor characteristics of gender, age, ethnicity, handedness, home location, sample location, occupation, diet type, use of moisturisers, use of hand sanitisers and use of public transport. Correlations between the bacterial profile with gender, ethnicity, diet type and hand sanitiser use were found. Specifically, the absence of Lactococcus indicated a primarily Chinese diet, while the absence of Alloiococcus indicated female gender, Asian ethnicity and hand sanitiser use. Testing of the prediction models demonstrated highest accuracy for gender estimation, while the prediction of other characteristics showed lower success. This study showed a correlation between the presence of certain bacterial species on donor’s hands and personal characteristics of potential forensic relevance, thus demonstrating a novel application of microbiome genotyping in forensic science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Centre for Forensic Science, University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Katherine Phan, Mark Barash, Xanthe Spindler, Peter Gunn & Claude Roux

Authors
  1. Katherine Phan
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  2. Mark Barash
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  3. Xanthe Spindler
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  4. Peter Gunn
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  5. Claude Roux
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Barash.

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All subjects were made aware of the nature of the study and gave written consent before any information gathering or sampling occurred. This study has been approved by the University of Technology Sydney Human Research Ethics committee (UTS HREC approval #2015000296).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Electronic supplementary material

The following files are available online: Table S1 – Bacterial groups identified as potential biomarkers using the LefSe pipeline; Table S2 – Association between Factors; Table S3 – Participant Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors.

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Phan, K., Barash, M., Spindler, X. et al. Retrieving forensic information about the donor through bacterial profiling. Int J Legal Med 134, 21–29 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-019-02069-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-019-02069-2

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