Affiliation: | 1. Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824Funding for this project was provided by the small grants program of the Pathology/Biology Section 2. of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and through discretionary funds of the Department of Biology at the University of Dayton. Additionally, this work has been supported in part by the University of Dayton Office of Graduate Professional & Continuing Education through the Graduate Student Summer Fellowship Program awarded to JML and the Millersville University Student Research Grant awarded to RE. Additional information and reprint requests: M. Eric Benbow, Ph.D. Department of Entomology and Department of Osteopathic Medical Specialties Michigan State University 243 Natural Science Building East Lansing, MI 48824 E-mail: benbow@msu.edu;3. Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824;4. Department of Biology, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, 45469-2320;5. Department of Biology, Millersville University, Millersville, PA, 17551 |
Abstract: | Human remains can be discovered in freshwater or marine ecosystems, circumstances where insects and other invertebrates have infrequently been used for understanding the time of postmortem submersion. In this study, the identification and succession of epinecrotic bacterial communities on vertebrate remains were described during decomposition in a temperate headwater stream during two seasons (summer and winter). Bacterial communities were characterized with 454 pyrosequencing and analyzed at phyletic and generic taxonomic resolutions. There was a significant increase in genera richness over decomposition during both seasons. Additionally, multivariate statistical modeling revealed significant differences in bacterial communities between seasons at both taxonomic resolutions and siginificant genera differences among sampling days within each season, suggesting a succession of these communities. These data are the first to describe aquatic bacterial succession using high-throughput metagenomic sequencing on vertebrate remains submerged in a freshwater habitat, and provide initial evidence for their potential use in forensic investigations. |