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Title: Forensic analysis of the microbiome of phones and shoes

Journal Article · · Microbiome
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  3. Univ. Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza (Brazil)
  4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX (United States)
  5. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  6. 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)
+ Show Author Affiliations

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.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1224088
Journal Information:
Microbiome, Vol. 3, Issue 1; ISSN 2049-2618
Publisher:
BioMed CentralCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 106 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (29)

A review of the potential of the MinION™ single-molecule sequencing system for forensic applications journal December 2018
Retrieving forensic information about the donor through bacterial profiling journal April 2019
Comparison of Swabbing Solution Volume and gDNA Extraction Kits on DNA Recovery from Rigid Surface journal January 2020
Creating a 3D microbial and chemical snapshot of a human habitat journal February 2018
Individual and collective identification in contemporary forensics journal December 2018
Personal microbiomes and next-generation sequencing for laboratory-based education journal November 2016
Microbial Similarity Between Students in a Common Dormitory Environment Reveals the Forensic Potential of Individual Microbial Signatures journal April 2019
Patterns of microbial colonization of human bone from surface-decomposed remains posted_content June 2019
Manner of death and demographic effects on microbial community composition in organs of the human cadaver posted_content August 2019
The human microbiome: an emerging tool in forensics journal February 2017
Bacterial colonization and succession in a newly opened hospital journal May 2017
The Future of Environmental DNA in Forensic Science journal November 2019
Microbial Similarity between Students in a Common Dormitory Environment Reveals the Forensic Potential of Individual Microbial Signatures journal July 2019
Geography and Location Are the Primary Drivers of Office Microbiome Composition journal April 2016
The Skin Microbiome of Cohabiting Couples journal July 2017
The microbiome of the built environment and mental health journal December 2015
Microbial biogeography of a university campus journal December 2015
The roles of the outdoors and occupants in contributing to a potential pan-microbiome of the built environment: a review journal May 2016
Skin fungal community and its correlation with bacterial community of urban Chinese individuals journal August 2016
Revised computational metagenomic processing uncovers hidden and biologically meaningful functional variation in the human microbiome journal February 2017
Human presence impacts fungal diversity of inflated lunar/Mars analog habitat journal July 2017
Ecologically informed microbial biomarkers and accurate classification of mixed and unmixed samples in an extensive cross-study of human body sites journal October 2018
Longitudinal homogenization of the microbiome between both occupants and the built environment in a cohort of United States Air Force Cadets journal May 2019
Ecologically informed microbial biomarkers and accurate classification of mixed and unmixed samples in an extensive cross-study of human body sites text January 2018
Microbial forensics: new breakthroughs and future prospects journal October 2018
The Built Environment Is a Microbial Wasteland journal April 2016
Filthy lucre: A metagenomic pilot study of microbes found on circulating currency in New York City journal April 2017
Indoor Microbiome and Antibiotic Resistance on Floor Surfaces: An Exploratory Study in Three Different Building Types journal October 2019
Meta-SourceTracker: application of Bayesian source tracking to shotgun metagenomics journal March 2020

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Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
forensic microbiology
source-sink dynamics
shoe microbiome
phone microbiome
microbial time series