Life and Death: New Perspectives and Applications in Forensic Science, Volume II

This Research Topic examines relevant studies that characterize the structure and function of thanatomicrobiome, nectrobiome, and soil communities associated with the postmortem decomposition of vertebrates. There is an active natural use of bodies after death by communities of organisms that have evolved to detect, colonize and use the now available resource. Insects and microbes are the two main groups of communities that interact with carrion resources and each other. It is only recently that the basic principles governing these interactions are beginning to be understood. This includes host, scavenger, entomological and microbial processes. Despite the abundance of microbial decomposers in decaying biomass, details on specific microorganisms, communities, interaction and effect of invertebrates, and the decomposition of vertebrate carcasses have not been fully elucidated, but remain active areas of research by many investigators. Forensic science is actively conducting research to determine how microbial and decomposition processes are used and the roles they play in insect interactions. Gene expression, community studies, and microbial research are being examined to gain an understanding of basic research principles to further elucidate forensic time of death investigations. Along with the expansion of the knowledge of these communities and their molecular underpinnings have come new forensic applications. Interrogation of nucleic acids existent in relevant tissues generates various amplicons that may be directly used as a monitoring tool for microbial ecology. Similarly, microRNA and proteomics from invertebrates, in particular forensically important blow flies, are actively being researched to provide more accurate and precise postmortem estimations Once dead, vertebrate bodies are rapidly colonized internally and externally by microbes. necrophagous insects have also been used for making estimates of time since death and new research is showing how well this evidence can be used in different regions of the world and under variable circumstances of death. In this special issue, the research problem is to investigate how the microbial, soil, and invertebrates in and/or around the vertebrate body changes postmortem as a function of time and temperature.

This collection will bring fresh and innovative science for solving death investigations, using cutting-edge technologies concerning the community of organisms that detect and use carcasses in ways that can be studied to inform forensic investigations. Forensic investigators are in need of modern tools to assist in constructing postmortem timelines, trace evidence relationships among subjects, and the circumstances of death or body relocation. The postmortem microbiome has the potential to provide new and exciting tools for answering such questions of forensic importance. Data of both invertebrate and microbe colonization and change can help with estimates of the very important postmortem interval (PMI), i.e., the time elapsed since death. Current studies demonstrate the feasibility of using postmortem metrics of invertebrates, vertebrates, microbes, and their molecules as forensic tools, ranging from PMI estimates to trace evidence biomarkers. In this Research Topic, we want to investigate how the microbial, soil, scavengers, and mRNA transcript census in and/or around the vertebrate body changes postmortem as a function of time and temperature.

We invite submissions that cover a wide range of topics related to the community of organisms that use vertebrate carcasses during their life history, including microbes, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Researchers may contribute Reviews/Mini Reviews, Original Research or Methods articles on the following (but not limited to) topics:
• The microbiome of internal (thanatomicrobiome) or external (epinecrotic) body sites of vertebrate carcasses or soil communities
• Collective abiotic and biotic components responsible for the decomposition of heterotrophic biomass, particularly of vertebrate carcasses
• The molecular underpinnings of postmortem microbiomes and insect colonization on carrion
• Tests of basic ecological and biological theory that drive community assembly of species involved in decomposing heterotrophic biomass
• How vertebrate scavenger activity affects necrobiome community assembly and its effects on using such data for forensic relevance
• Recovery of forensic DNA samples from residential surfaces
• Conceptualizing symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms involving applications of industrial hemp
• Profiling mRNA transcript abundances in vertebrate remains
• Capillary Electrophoresis Single-Strand Conformational Polymorphism (CE-SSCP) to resolve human forensic mixtures
• The role of COVID-19 in forensic science