School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Vital-IT Group, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Microbes Infect. 2016 Jun;18(6):399-405. doi: 10.1016/j.micinf.2016.03.011. Epub 2016 Apr 8.
Human identification has played a prominent role in forensic science for the past two decades. Identification based on unique genetic traits is driving the field. However, this may have limitations, for instance, for twins. Moreover, high-throughput sequencing techniques are now available and may provide a high amount of data likely useful in forensic science. This study investigates the potential for bacteria found in the salivary microbiome to be used to differentiate individuals. Two different targets (16S rRNA and rpoB) were chosen to maximise coverage of the salivary microbiome and when combined, they increase the power of differentiation (identification). Paired-end Illumina high-throughput sequencing was used to analyse the bacterial composition of saliva from two different people at four different time points (t = 0 and t = 28 days and then one year later at t = 0 and t = 28 days). Five major phyla dominate the samples: Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria. Streptococcus, a Firmicutes, is one of the most abundant aerobic genera found in saliva and targeting Streptococcus rpoB has enabled a deeper characterisation of the different streptococci species, which cannot be differentiated using 16S rRNA alone. We have observed that samples from the same person group together regardless of time of sampling. The results indicate that it is possible to distinguish two people using the bacterial microbiota present in their saliva.
在过去的二十年中，人类身份识别在法医学中发挥了重要作用。基于独特遗传特征的识别正在推动该领域的发展。然而，这可能存在局限性，例如对于双胞胎。此外，高通量测序技术现在已经可用，并且可能提供大量可能对法医学有用的数据。本研究调查了唾液微生物组中发现的细菌用于个体区分的潜力。选择了两个不同的目标（16S rRNA 和 rpoB），以最大限度地覆盖唾液微生物组，当组合使用时，它们增加了区分（识别）的能力。使用配对末端 Illumina 高通量测序技术分析了来自两个人在四个不同时间点（t=0 和 t=28 天，然后一年后 t=0 和 t=28 天）的唾液中的细菌组成。五个主要的门主宰着样本：厚壁菌门、变形菌门、放线菌门、拟杆菌门和梭杆菌门。链球菌，一种厚壁菌门，是唾液中最丰富的需氧属之一，靶向链球菌 rpoB 能够更深入地描述不同的链球菌种，而仅使用 16S rRNA 无法区分这些种。我们观察到来自同一人的样本无论采样时间如何都聚集在一起。结果表明，使用存在于其唾液中的细菌微生物组可以区分两个人。
