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Seasonal variation of postmortem microbial communities

Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology volume 11, pages 202–207 (2015)Cite this article

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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Author notes

  1. Rob Knight

    Present address: Departments of Pediatrics and Computer Science & Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Forensic Taphonomy, Forensic Sciences Unit, Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Chaminade University of Honolulu, Honolulu, HI, 96816, USA

    David O. Carter

  2. BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Jessica L. Metcalf, Alexander Bibat & Rob Knight

  3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Colorado, 215 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Rob Knight

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Rob Knight

  5. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Rob Knight

Authors
  1. David O. Carter
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  2. Jessica L. Metcalf
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  3. Alexander Bibat
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  4. Rob Knight
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David O. Carter.

Additional information

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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Keywords

  • Postmortem microbiology
  • Taphonomy
  • Decomposition
  • Bacteria
  • Rhabditidae