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Manner of death and demographic effects on microbial community composition in organs of the human cadaver

View ORCID ProfileHolly Lutz, Alexandria Vangelatos, Neil Gottel, Emily Speed, Antonio Osculati, Silvia Visona, Sheree J. Finley, Sari Tuomisto, Pekka Karhunen, Jack A. Gilbert, Gulnaz T. Javan
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/752576
Holly Lutz
1Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
2Scripps Institution for Oceanography, UCSD, La Jolla, California, USA
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  • ORCID record for Holly Lutz
  • For correspondence: hlutz@fieldmuseum.org
Alexandria Vangelatos
3Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
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Neil Gottel
1Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
2Scripps Institution for Oceanography, UCSD, La Jolla, California, USA
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Emily Speed
4District One Medical Examiner’s Office, Pensacola, FL 32504, USA
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Antonio Osculati
5Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, via Forlanini 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy
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Silvia Visona
5Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, via Forlanini 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy
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Sheree J. Finley
6Physical Sciences Department, Forensic Science Program, Alabama State University, 915 S. Jackson St., Montgomery, AL 36104, USA
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Sari Tuomisto
7Finnish Cardiovascular Research Center Tampere, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere Finland; Fimlab Laboratories Ltd, Pirkanmaa Hospital District, Tampere, Finland
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Pekka Karhunen
7Finnish Cardiovascular Research Center Tampere, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere Finland; Fimlab Laboratories Ltd, Pirkanmaa Hospital District, Tampere, Finland
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Jack A. Gilbert
1Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
2Scripps Institution for Oceanography, UCSD, La Jolla, California, USA
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Gulnaz T. Javan
6Physical Sciences Department, Forensic Science Program, Alabama State University, 915 S. Jackson St., Montgomery, AL 36104, USA
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  • For correspondence: hlutz@fieldmuseum.org
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Abstract

The microbiome serves important functions in human health, and postmortem, the microbial signatures of colonized organ tissue could be useful in helping to predict the manner of death in cases where this information is not known. We surveyed the microbiota (16S rRNA V4 amplicon sequencing) of 265 organ tissue samples including liver, blood, brain, heart, prostate, spleen and uterus from cadavers in Italy, Finland and the United States with confirmed manners of death comprising either accidental death, natural death, homicide, and suicide. Geographic locality (i.e. nationality) had a strong effect on observed microbial composition. Differing PERMANOVA results between unweighted and weighted UniFrac (nearly inverse results) suggest that specific bacteria may be associated with ethnicity and age, but that these differences are negligible when taking into account the relative abundance of bacterial taxa; weighted UniFrac measures suggest that although taxonomic composition may not vary significantly between different manners of death, PMI, or BMI categories, the relative abundance of specific taxa vary significantly. Various tissues exhibit differential associations with bacteria, and prostate and uterus were substantially different compared to other organs. For example, in Italian cadavers, the bacteria MLE1-12 permeated nearly all tissues, except the prostate and uterus. We identified specific bacterial ASVs as biomarkers of either natural or accidental death and suicide, but not for homicide. While the manner of death may have an impact on microbial associations, further investigation under more controlled conditions will be needed to validate whether these associations are predictive in forensic determinations.

Importance The utilization of microbial data in the context of forensic investigations holds great promise for the field of forensic science. Identification of taxa that are associated with postmortem interval (PMI), specific manners of death (MOD), or other traits such as age, sex, ethnicity, and nationality may allow investigators to refine the circumstantial details surrounding the death of an individual. In this study we find nationality (geographic location of cadaver) to be a dominant predictor of cadaver microbiome composition. We also identify a number of cadaver-specific traits to be associated with microbial alpha- and beta diversity, as well as bacterial taxa that are differentially associated with these traits.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted August 31, 2019.
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Manner of death and demographic effects on microbial community composition in organs of the human cadaver
Holly Lutz, Alexandria Vangelatos, Neil Gottel, Emily Speed, Antonio Osculati, Silvia Visona, Sheree J. Finley, Sari Tuomisto, Pekka Karhunen, Jack A. Gilbert, Gulnaz T. Javan
bioRxiv 752576; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/752576
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Manner of death and demographic effects on microbial community composition in organs of the human cadaver
Holly Lutz, Alexandria Vangelatos, Neil Gottel, Emily Speed, Antonio Osculati, Silvia Visona, Sheree J. Finley, Sari Tuomisto, Pekka Karhunen, Jack A. Gilbert, Gulnaz T. Javan
bioRxiv 752576; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/752576

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