Dissecting the microbial community structure of internal organs during the early postmortem period in a murine corpse model

BMC Microbiology

article

Liu, Ruina¹  Zhang, Kai¹  Li, Huan²  Sun, Qinru¹  Wei, Xin¹  Li, Huiyu¹  Zhang, Siruo³  Fan, Shuanliang¹  Wang, Zhenyuan¹ 

[1] College of Forensic Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University;Xi’an Mental Health Center Hospital;Department of Clinical Laboratory, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital;Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University

关键词: Thanatomicrobiome;    Body decomposition;    16S rRNA;    Internal organs;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12866-023-02786-0

学科分类：放射科、核医学、医学影像

来源: BioMed Central

【 摘 要 】

Microorganisms distribute and proliferate both inside and outside the body, which are the main mediators of decomposition after death. However, limited information is available on the postmortem microbiota changes of extraintestinal body sites in the early decomposition stage of mammalian corpses. This study investigated microbial composition variations among different organs and the relationship between microbial communities and time since death over 1 day of decomposition in male C57BL/6 J mice by 16S rRNA sequencing. During 1 day of decomposition, Agrobacterium, Prevotella, Bacillus, and Turicibacter were regarded as time-relevant genera in internal organs at different timepoints. Pathways associated with lipid, amino acid, carbohydrate and terpenoid and polyketide metabolism were significantly enriched at 8 h than that at 0.5 or 4 h. The microbiome compositions and postmortem metabolic pathways differed by time since death, and more importantly, these alterations were organ specific. The dominant microbes differed by organ, while they tended toward similarity as decomposition progressed. The observed thanatomicrobiome variation by body site provides new knowledge into decomposition ecology and forensic microbiology. Additionally, the microbes detected at 0.5 h in internal organs may inform a new direction for organ transplantation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY|CC0