Abstract
Body-associated microbes were recently shown to change significantly during decomposition, undergoing an ecological succession in experimental conditions using rodent and swine models. We investigated microbial succession in soils associated with swine carcasses under experimental field conditions in summer and winter. We demonstrate that these postmortem microbial communities change in a specific, reproducible fashion, and that soil microbes represent a significant component of the postmortem microbial community, contrary to widespread belief in forensic science. However, the effects of decomposition on soil microbial communities were different in summer and winter. We suggest that the microbial ecological succession will be useful in medicolegal death investigation; however, observations in winter might not be applicable to summer, which indicates a need for a greater understanding of the seasonality of decomposition.
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Acknowledgments
DNA sequences have been deposited in the QIIME database as studies 1609. We thank J Huntley and the CU next-generation sequencing facility. We thank Allison Mann for assistance with sequence data processing. This work was supported in part by the National Institute of Justice (Award 2011-DN-BX-K533) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. NIH-BRIC P20MD006084 supports research capacity and infrastructure at Chaminade University of Honolulu.
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David O. Carter and Jessica L. Metcalf contributed equally to this study.
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Carter, D.O., Metcalf, J.L., Bibat, A. et al. Seasonal variation of postmortem microbial communities. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 11, 202–207 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-015-9667-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-015-9667-7