Metagenomics Analyses: A Qualitative Assessment Tool for Applications in Forensic Sciences

Forensic science deals with the scientific investigation of evidence collected from crime scenes. Since decades, forensic scientists have solved complex and sophisticated crimes using biological evidence. The forensic analyses include the biochemical profiling, physicochemical profiling and molecular analysis of the evidence. The biochemical profiling involves the analysis of the lipid-profile, the presence of toxins in the visceral fluids and enzyme activity analyses. However, it has come to light that detailed molecular evidence, besides the conventional DNA-evidence, is required for the accurate implication of an individual in a crime. Pre-meditated crimes with cadavers found in outbound locations are especially challenging. Many times, the biological samples do not provide enough DNA to carry out the molecular analysis. Metagenomics has paved a way to explore the microbiome of the biological evidence from which the DNA-evidence cannot be extracted. Using high-throughput sequencing methods followed by sequence analysis, the environmental samples of evidence can give valuable insights into the detailed molecular patterns. These patterns can make the identification or comparison of subjects easier. The chapter discusses the genomic analysis, proteome analysis and the metagenomic approaches for investigating a crime scene.