Forensic analysis of the microbiome of phones and shoes
Abstract
Background: Microbial interaction between human-associated objects and the environments we inhabit may have forensic implications, and the extent to which microbes are shared between individuals inhabiting the same space may be relevant to human health and disease transmission. In this study, two participants sampled the front and back of their cell phones, four different locations on the soles of their shoes, and the floor beneath them every waking hour over a 2-day period. A further 89 participants took individual samples of their shoes and phones at three different scientific conferences. Results: Samples taken from different surface types maintained significantly different microbial community structures. The impact of the floor microbial community on that of the shoe environments was strong and immediate, as evidenced by Procrustes analysis of shoe replicates and significant correlation between shoe and floor samples taken at the same time point. Supervised learning was highly effective at determining which participant had taken a given shoe or phone sample, and a Bayesian method was able to determine which participant had taken each shoe sample based entirely on its similarity to the floor samples. Both shoe and phone samples taken by conference participants clustered into distinct groups based on location, thoughmore »
- Authors:
-
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Univ. Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza (Brazil)
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX (United States)
- Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China); Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); Marine Biological Lab., Woods Hole, MA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1224088
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Microbiome
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2049-2618
- Publisher:
- BioMed Central
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; forensic microbiology; source-sink dynamics; shoe microbiome; phone microbiome; microbial time series
Citation Formats
Lax, Simon, Hampton-Marcell, Jarrad T., Gibbons, Sean M., Colares, Geórgia Barguil, Smith, Daniel, Eisen, Jonathan A., and Gilbert, Jack A. Forensic analysis of the microbiome of phones and shoes. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1186/s40168-015-0082-9.
Lax, Simon, Hampton-Marcell, Jarrad T., Gibbons, Sean M., Colares, Geórgia Barguil, Smith, Daniel, Eisen, Jonathan A., & Gilbert, Jack A. Forensic analysis of the microbiome of phones and shoes. United States. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-015-0082-9
Lax, Simon, Hampton-Marcell, Jarrad T., Gibbons, Sean M., Colares, Geórgia Barguil, Smith, Daniel, Eisen, Jonathan A., and Gilbert, Jack A. Tue .
"Forensic analysis of the microbiome of phones and shoes". United States. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-015-0082-9. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1224088.
@article{osti_1224088,
title = {Forensic analysis of the microbiome of phones and shoes},
author = {Lax, Simon and Hampton-Marcell, Jarrad T. and Gibbons, Sean M. and Colares, Geórgia Barguil and Smith, Daniel and Eisen, Jonathan A. and Gilbert, Jack A.},
abstractNote = {Background: Microbial interaction between human-associated objects and the environments we inhabit may have forensic implications, and the extent to which microbes are shared between individuals inhabiting the same space may be relevant to human health and disease transmission. In this study, two participants sampled the front and back of their cell phones, four different locations on the soles of their shoes, and the floor beneath them every waking hour over a 2-day period. A further 89 participants took individual samples of their shoes and phones at three different scientific conferences. Results: Samples taken from different surface types maintained significantly different microbial community structures. The impact of the floor microbial community on that of the shoe environments was strong and immediate, as evidenced by Procrustes analysis of shoe replicates and significant correlation between shoe and floor samples taken at the same time point. Supervised learning was highly effective at determining which participant had taken a given shoe or phone sample, and a Bayesian method was able to determine which participant had taken each shoe sample based entirely on its similarity to the floor samples. Both shoe and phone samples taken by conference participants clustered into distinct groups based on location, though much more so when an unweighted distance metric was used, suggesting sharing of low-abundance microbial taxa between individuals inhabiting the same space. In conclusion, correlations between microbial community sources and sinks allow for inference of the interactions between humans and their environment.},
doi = {10.1186/s40168-015-0082-9},
journal = {Microbiome},
number = 1,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Tue May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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