Soil Fungal Communities Investigated by Metabarcoding Within Simulated Forensic Burial Contexts

Procopio, Noemi, Ghignone, Stefano, Voyron, Samuele, Chiapello, Marco, Williams, Anna, Chamberlain, Andrew, Mello, Antonietta and Buckley, Michael (2020) Soil Fungal Communities Investigated by Metabarcoding Within Simulated Forensic Burial Contexts. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11. p. 1686. ISSN 1664-302X

[img]
Preview
Text
fmicb-11-01686.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (5MB) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01686

Abstract

Decomposition of animal bodies in the burial environment plays a key role in the biochemistry of the soil, altering the balance of the local microbial populations present before the introduction of the carcass. Despite the growing number of studies on decomposition and soil bacterial populations, less is known on its effects on fungal communities. Shifts in the fungal populations at different post-mortem intervals (PMIs) could provide insights for PMI estimation and clarify the role that specific fungal taxa have at specific decomposition stages. In this study, we buried pig carcasses over a period of 1- to 6-months, and we sampled the soil in contact with each carcass at different PMIs. We performed metabarcoding analysis of the mycobiome targeting both the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) 1 and 2, to elucidate which one was more suitable for this purpose. Our results showed a decrease in the fungal taxonomic richness associated with increasing PMIs, and the alteration of the soil fungal signature even after 6 months post-burial, showing the inability of soil communities to restore their original composition within this timeframe. The results highlighted taxonomic trends associated with specific PMIs, such as the increase of the Mortierellomycota after 4- and 6-months and of Ascomycota particularly after 2 months, and the decrease of Basidiomycota from the first to the last time point. We have found a limited number of taxa specifically associated with the carrion and not present in the control soil, showing that the major contributors to the recorded changes are originated from the soil and were not introduced by the carrion. As this is the first study conducted on burial graves, it sets the baseline for additional studies to investigate the role of fungal communities on prolonged decomposition periods and to identify fungal biomarkers to improve the accuracy of PMI prediction for forensic applications.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding information: We are grateful to the Royal Society for funding both a doctoral studentship (NP) and University Research Fellowship (MB) under grants RG130453 and UF120473, respectively. We would also like to acknowledge the UKRI for funding a Future Leaders Fellowship (NP) under grant MR/S032878/1. The funding body did not have any role in the design of the study, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, or in writing the manuscript.
Uncontrolled Keywords: microbial ecology, next-generation sequencing, fungal communities, necrobiome, post-mortem interval, vertebrate decomposition, forensic science
Subjects: C200 Botany
C500 Microbiology
F400 Forensic and Archaeological Science
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Applied Sciences
Depositing User: John Coen
Date Deposited: 04 Jan 2021 15:56
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 16:18
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/45085

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics