Postmortem succession of gut microbial communities in deceased human subjects

The human microbiome has demonstrated an importance for the health and functioning in living individuals. However, the fate of the microbiome after death is less understood. In addition to a better understanding of microbe-mediated decomposition processes, postmortem succession of human-associated m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2017-06, Vol.5, p.e3437-e3437, Article e3437
Main Authors: DeBruyn, Jennifer M, Hauther, Kathleen A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology research facility
Arthropods
Bacteria
Cadavers
Decomposition
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Donations
Ecology
Environmental conditions
Forensic anthropology
Forensic science
Forensic sciences
Human decomposition
Human subjects
Intestinal microflora
Legal medicine
Microbial ecology
Microbiology
Microbiome
Microbiomes
Postmortem interval
rRNA 16S
Soil sciences
Studies
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Summary:The human microbiome has demonstrated an importance for the health and functioning in living individuals. However, the fate of the microbiome after death is less understood. In addition to a better understanding of microbe-mediated decomposition processes, postmortem succession of human-associated microbial communities has been suggested as a possible forensic tool for estimating time since death, or postmortem interval (PMI). The objective of our study was to document postmortem changes in human gut bacterial communities. Gut microflora were repeatedly sampled from the caeca of cadavers as they decayed under natural environmental conditions. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed that over time, bacterial richness significantly increased (  = 0.449) while diversity decreased (  =  - 0.701). The composition of gut bacterial communities changed in a similar manner over time towards a common decay community. OTUs belonging to Bacteroidales ( , ) significantly declined while Clostridiales ( , ) and the fly-associated Gammaproteobacteria and increased. Our examination of human caeca microflora in decomposing cadavers adds to the growing literature on postmortem microbial communities, which will ultimately contribute to a better understanding of decomposition processes.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.3437