Bookedited by David O. Carter, Jeffery K. Tomberlin, M. Eric Benbow, Jessica L. Metcalf.
Summary: Forensic Microbiology focuses on newly emerging areas of microbiology relevant to medicolegal and criminal investigations: postmortem changes, establishing cause of death, estimating postmortem interval, and trace evidence analysis. Recent developments in sequencing technology allow researchers, and potentially practitioners, to examine microbial communities at unprecedented resolution and in multidisciplinary contexts. This detailed study of microbes facilitates the development of new forensic tools that use the structure and function of microbial communities as physical evidence. Chapters cover: -Experiment design -Data analysis -Sample preservation -The influence of microbes on results from autopsy, toxicology, and histology -Decomposition ecology -Trace evidence This diverse, rapidly evolving field of study has the potential to provide high quality microbial evidence which can be replicated across laboratories, providing spatial and temporal evidence which could be crucial in a broad range of investigative contexts. This book is intended as a resource for students, microbiologists, investigators, pathologists, and other forensic science professionals.
Contents:
A primer on microbiology
History, current, and future use of microorganisms as physical evidence
Approaches and considerations for forensic microbiology decomposition research
Sampling methods and data generation
An introduction to metagenomic data generation, analysis, visualization, and interpretation
Culture and long-term storage of microorganisms for forensic science
Clinical microbiology and virology in the context of the autopsy
Postmortem bacterial translocation
Microbial impacts in postmortem toxicology
Microbial communities associated with decomposing corpses
Arthropod-microbe interactions on vertebrate remains: Potential applications in the forensic sciences
Microbes, anthropology, and bones
Forensic microbiology in built environments
Soil bacteria as trace evidence
DNA profiling of bacteria from human hair: Potential and pitfalls
Perspectives on the future of forensic microbiology.