1. The genital microbiome and its potential for detecting sexual assault
- Author
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George Duncan, Mirna Ghemrawi, Andrea Ramírez Torres, Bruce McCord, Rita R. Colwell, and Manoj Dadlani
- Subjects
Adult ,DNA, Bacterial ,Male ,0301 basic medicine ,food.ingredient ,Penile skin ,Pilot Projects ,Bioinformatics ,Peptoniphilus ,Pathology and Forensic Medicine ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,food ,Genetics ,Humans ,Medicine ,Sex organ ,030216 legal & forensic medicine ,Microbiome ,Aged ,Skin ,Sexual assault ,business.industry ,Microbiota ,Sex Offenses ,High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ,Sequence Analysis, DNA ,Middle Aged ,030104 developmental biology ,Vagina ,Vaginal microbiome ,Female ,Identification (biology) ,Metagenomics ,business ,Penis ,Human Microbiome Project - Abstract
Since its inception, the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) has provided key discoveries that can be applied to forensics, in addition to those of obvious medical value. Whether for postmortem interval estimation, geolocation, or human identification, there are many applications of the microbiome as an investigative lead for forensic casework. The human skin microbiome has shown great potential for use in studies of transfer and human identification, however there has been little focus on the genital microbiome, in particular penile skin which differs from other body sites. Our preliminary data on both the penile and vaginal microbiome demonstrates potential value in cases of sexual assault. In this study we describe genital microbial signatures based on the analysis of five male and five female genital samples and compare these results to those from longitudinal studies. Selected taxa, e.g., Gardnerella, Lactobacilli, Finegoldia, Peptoniphilus, and Anaerococci, are shown to be candidate constituents of the genital microbiome that merit investigation for use in sexual assault casework.
- Published
- 2021
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