Microbial Community Analysis of Human Decomposition on Soil

Soil fungal community shift evaluation as a potential cadaver decomposition indicator

“…Decomposition is a complex temporal sequence of 'fresh', 'bloat', 'decay' and 'dry' stages that begins with autolysis shortly after death, concomitant with organism succession (bacteria, fungi and invertebrates) and changes in the environmental bioand physico-chemical variables [5,14,35]. In particular, carcass inflation and bursting release decomposition compounds and associated microflora to form a cadaver decomposition island (CDI), which is dependent on the body size, soil type and maggot mass.…”

Decomposition Process and Post Mortem Changes: Review

“…In order to maintain basic cellular metabolic activity, anaerobic mechanism glycolysis serves as an alternative source of energy and produces waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactate. The cellular pH drops until the membrane is unable to maintain its normal permeability and rupture accompanied by release of hydrolytic enzymes (Paczkowski & Schütz 2011;Parkinson et al 2009). The free hydrolytic enzymes will start to attack any cellular structures which under living condition are not considered as substrate (Powers 2005).…”

“…Consequently, cellular membrane ruptures and cellular junction breaks down, releasing cellular content (Parsons 2009;Zhou & Byard 2011). The released cellular content functions as source of nutrient and energy for subsequent microbiological reaction in putrefaction process (Parkinson et al 2009;Zhou & Byard 2011).…”

Shifts in soil biodiversity—A forensic comparison between Sus scrofa domesticus and vegetation decomposition

“…Cadaver decomposition is a complex process that begins with post-mortem changes such as algor mortis, rigor mortis and livor mortis followed by soft tissue decomposition through the processes of autolysis, putrefaction, decay and skeletonization [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The soft tissue decomposition stages are characterised by protein, carbohydrate and lipid catabolisms in the body [1,2,5].…”

“…The application of fatty acid-based techniques, such as phospholipid fatty acid and fatty acid methyl ester analyses, and molecular techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), denaturing/temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (T/DGGE) and terminal restriction length polymorphism (T-RFLP) with next generation sequencing for microbial community profiling, are beginning to elucidate the complex relationships between cadaver decomposition, nutrient cycling and soil microbial community dynamics in a forensic context [6,[13][14][15][16][17][18]. For example, some sub-surface studies by Bergmann et al [19] and Olakanye et al [20] recorded spatial and temporal changes in soil bacterial diversity relative to burial depth and decomposition time, respectively.…”