Microbiota fingerprints lose individually identifying features over time

Abstract

BackgroundHumans host individually unique skin microbiota, suggesting that microbiota traces transferred from skin to surfaces could serve as forensic markers analogous to fingerprints. While it is known that individuals leave identifiable microbiota traces on surfaces, it is not clear for how long these traces persist. Moreover, as skin and surface microbiota change with time, even persistent traces may lose their forensic potential as they would cease to resemble the microbiota of the person who left them. We followed skin and surface microbiota within households for four seasons to determine whether accurate microbiota-based matching of individuals to their households could be achieved across long time delays.ResultsWhile household surface microbiota traces could be matched to the correct occupant or occupants with 67% accuracy, accuracy decreased substantially when skin and surface samples were collected in different seasons, and particularly when surface samples were collected long after skin samples. Most OTUs persisted on skin or surfaces for less than one season, indicating that OTU loss was the major cause of decreased matching accuracy. OTUs that were more useful for individual identification persisted for less time and were less likely to be deposited from skin to surface, suggesting a trade-off between the longevity and identifying value of microbiota traces.ConclusionsWhile microbiota traces have potential forensic value, unlike fingerprints they are not static and may degrade in a way that preferentially erases features useful in identifying individuals.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40168-016-0209-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A Diet-Sensitive Commensal Lactobacillus Strain Mediates TLR7-Dependent Systemic Autoimmunity

“…were associated with more severe disease whereas they were reduced as disease is controlled with dexamethasone (Luo et al, 2017). The microbiota of MRL/lpr mice, on the other hand, were described to be depleted of Lactobacillaceae and a mix of Lactobacillus strains improved outcomes in this lupus model (Mu et al, 2017b, 2017a; Zhang et al, 2014). These studies did not include gnotobiotic experiments or define which strain mediates the observed effects, making a causal relationship difficult to establish.…”

A comparative analysis of drinking water employing metagenomics

“…Furthermore, regrowth or after growth of microorganisms in treated DW, including BW, can occur [10,[15][16][17][18]. Uncontrolled growth of bacteria, notably biofilm bacteria, in water mains and premise plumbing during delivery is well documented and can introduce operational issues within distribution systems, resulting in deterioration of color and taste or causing potential human hygiene problems [8,10,17,19,20].…”

Integrating the microbiome as a resource in the forensics toolkit

“…Researches have demonstrated the potential to identify a single individual in large populations, based on microbial fingerprints from metagenomic tags, even over long periods of time [42,55]. It has also been shown that skin bacterial profiles can be confidently used to link specific individuals to objects touched, even after months [56], provided the objects have since remained untouched [31]. Furthermore, it is possible to define specific biogeographical patterns from different objects, based on particular microbiome signals; for instance, toilets, doorknobs and restroom floors faithfully reflect the microbiome characterizing the human gut, skin and soil bacterial profiles respectively [26].…”