Postmortem submersion interval estimation of cadavers recovered from freshwater based on gut microbial community succession

Fuyuan Zhang; Pengfei Wang; Kuo Zeng; Huiya Yuan; Ziwei Wang; Xinjie Li; Haomiao Yuan; Shukui Du; Dawei Guan; Linlin Wang; Rui Zhao

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.988297

Postmortem submersion interval estimation of cadavers recovered from freshwater based on gut microbial community succession

Front Microbiol. 2022 Dec 2:13:988297. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.988297. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Fuyuan Zhang¹, Pengfei Wang^{1

2}, Kuo Zeng³, Huiya Yuan^{1

2}, Ziwei Wang¹, Xinjie Li¹, Haomiao Yuan¹, Shukui Du¹, Dawei Guan^{1

2}, Linlin Wang^{1

2}, Rui Zhao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Forensic Pathology, China Medical University School of Forensic Medicine, Shenyang, China.
² Liaoning Province Key Laboratory of Forensic Bio-evidence Science, Shenyang, China.
³ Institute of Evidence Law and Forensic Science, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Microbial community succession during decomposition has been proven to be a useful tool for postmortem interval (PMI) estimation. Numerous studies have shown that the intestinal microbial community presented chronological changes after death and was stable in terrestrial corpses with different causes of death. However, the postmortem pattern of intestinal microbial community succession in cadavers retrieved from water remains unclear. For immersed corpses, the postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) is a useful indicator of PMI. To provide reliable estimates of PMSI in forensic investigations, we investigated the gut microbial community succession of corpses submersed in freshwater and explored its potential application in forensic investigation. In this study, the intestinal microbial community of mouse submersed in freshwater that died of drowning or CO₂ asphyxia (i.e., postmortem submersion) were characterized by 16S rDNA amplification and high-throughput sequencing, followed by bioinformatic analyses. The results demonstrated that the chronological changes in intestinal bacterial communities were not different between the drowning and postmortem submersion groups. α-diversity decreased significantly within 14 days of decomposition in both groups, and the β-diversity bacterial community structure ordinated chronologically, inferring the functional pathway and phenotype. To estimate PMSI, a regression model was established by random forest (RF) algorithm based on the succession of postmortem microbiota. Furthermore, 15 genera, including Proteus, Enterococcus, and others, were selected as candidate biomarkers to set up a concise predicted model, which provided a prediction of PMSI [MAE (± SE) = 0.818 (± 0.165) d]. Overall, our present study provides evidence that intestinal microbial community succession would be a valuable marker to estimate the PMSI of corpses submerged in an aquatic habitat.

Keywords: aquatic habitats; decomposition; forensic medicine; microbial community; postmortem submersion interval.