Insights into the Differential Preservation of Bone Proteomes in Inhumed and Entombed Cadavers from Italian Forensic Caseworks

Bonicelli, Andrea, Nunzio, Aldo Di, Nunzio, Ciro Di and Procopio, Noemi (2022) Insights into the Differential Preservation of Bone Proteomes in Inhumed and Entombed Cadavers from Italian Forensic Caseworks. Journal of Proteome Research, 21 (5). pp. 1285-1298. ISSN 1535-3893

[img]
Preview
Text (Final published version)
acs.jproteome.1c00904.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (2MB) | Preview
[img]
Preview
Text (Advance online version)
acs.jproteome.1c00904.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (2MB) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.1c00904

Abstract

Bone is a hard biological tissue and a precious reservoir of information in forensic investigations as it retains key biomolecules commonly used for identification purposes. Bone proteins have recently attracted significant interest for their potential in estimating post-mortem interval (PMI) and age at death (AAD). However, the preservation of such proteins is highly dependent on intrinsic and extrinsic factors that can hinder the potential application of molecular techniques to forensic sciences. The present study aims at investigating the effects that two commonly used types of burial practices (entombment and inhumation) have on bone protein survival. The sample consists of 14 exhumed individuals from cemeteries in Southern Italy with different AADs (29–85 years) and PMIs (1–37 years). LC-MS/MS analyses show that 16 proteins are better preserved under the entombed conditions and 4 proteins are better preserved under the inhumed conditions, whereas no clear differences are detected for post-translational protein modifications. Furthermore, several potential “stable” protein markers (i.e., proteins not affected by the burial environment) are identified for PMI and AAD estimation. Overall, these results show that the two burial environments play a role in the differential preservation of noncollagenous proteins, confirming the potential of LC-MS/MS-based proteomics in forensic sciences.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding information: We acknowledge the UKRI for supporting this work by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (N.P.) under grant MR/ S032878/1. We also acknowledge the technical support of The Newcastle University Protein and Proteome Analysis (NUPPA) core facility for mass spectrometry analyses and Luke Gent for proofreading this manuscript. The TOC figure was created with BioRender.com.
Uncontrolled Keywords: bone, burial environment, post-mortem interval,age-at-death, forensics, post-translational protein modifications
Subjects: C700 Molecular Biology, Biophysics and Biochemistry
F100 Chemistry
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Applied Sciences
Depositing User: Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited: 07 Mar 2022 16:20
Last Modified: 18 May 2022 13:30
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/48630

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics