Microbial Signature: A new tool for tracking burglaries

Microbial Signature

In forensic sciences, generally tracking the burglaries by using the techniques like DNA identification, facial reconstruction and others. Now, American microbiologists bring a new tool, Microbial Signature. With the new tool, burglaries can track with the traces of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in homes.

The study lead researcher, Jarrad Hampton-Marcell from University of Illinois Chicago, said, this study showed that microbiomes depend very much on the presence or absence of people in a space.

Normally, humans emit approximately 36 million microbial cells per hour into their environment for providing the opportunity to trace microbial signatures back to their originating source.

While, to test the microbial signature, the researchers collected the samples (nostril and hand) from residents in respective places and identified the unique bacterial collections from each person, and generated model to detect the accuracy of a non-resident interacting with a given home.

Results of unique operational taxonomic units
A total of 9,965 unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified among 30 individuals. When observing the change in uOTUs over time, the rates of appearance and disappearance showed no difference in the presence of other people.

Hampton-Marcell, stated, this is the first study to use the microbiome as a forensic tool using remarkable markers instead of fluctuations in the microbial network structure. With further improvement in detection of stable markers, the human microbiome may fill as an extra device for human profiling and crime scene investigations.

While, this study is presented at the annual of the American Society for Microbiology, held in Atlanta, Georgia.

https://spinonews.com/2018/06/11/microbial-signature-a-new-tool-for-tracking-burglaries/