ArticleMicrobiome2021
Diurnal variation in the human skin microbiome affects accuracy of forensic microbiome matching.
Article in Microbiome, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- [Advances in the Application of Forensic Microbiome Analysis in Tissue Source Inference].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2025Pooled it
- Temporal Dynamics of Latent Fingerprint Microbiomes: A First Step to Decoding Crime Evidence.Genes · 2026Article
- Forensic analysis of environmental and skin microbiome differences in college dormitories based on 16 S rRNA.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- The human skin microbiome: factors affecting individuality and application in forensic investigations.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Review
- Quantifying human-environment interactions through Bayesian modeling of species-resolved microbial transfer signatures: an exploratory proof-of-concept study.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Targeted probe capture metagenomics-enabled surveillance of multidrug-resistant organisms and antimicrobial resistance genes in post-handwashing areas of public washrooms.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Effects of the sampling time on the vaginal microbiota in healthy pregnant women: a prospective observational study.AJOG global reports · 2025Article
- Review
- Diverse and specialized metabolic capabilities of microbes in oligotrophic built environments.Microbiome · 2024Article
- Comparison of the full-length sequence and sub-regions of 16S rRNA gene for skin microbiome profiling.mSystems · 2024Article
- Crosstalk between circadian clocks and pathogen niche.PLoS pathogens · 2024Review
- Explore variation of salivary bacteria across time and geolocations.International journal of legal medicine · 2024Article
- Research progress on the application of 16S rRNA gene sequencing and machine learning in forensic microbiome individual identification.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Review
- Illuminating microflora: shedding light on the potential of blue light to modulate the cutaneous microbiome.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Review
- Highly host-linked viromes in the built environment possess habitat-dependent diversity and functions for potential virus-host coevolution.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Human microbiome transfer in the built environment differs based on occupants, objects, and buildings.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Application of Microbiome in Forensics.Genomics, proteomics & bioinformatics · 2023Review
- Microbiota of long-term indwelling hemodialysis catheters during renal transplantation perioperative period: a cross-sectional metagenomic microbial community analysis.Renal failure · 2023Article
- Temporal dynamics and composition of ocular surface microbiota in C57BL/6J mice: uncovering a 12h ultradian rhythm.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
- Species-Resolved Metagenomics of Kindergarten Microbiomes Reveal Microbial Admixture Within Sites and Potential Microbial Hazards.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe human skin microbiome has been recently investigated as a potential forensic tool, as people leave traces of their potentially unique microbiomes on objects and surfaces with which they interact. In this metagenomic study of four people in Hong Kong, their homes, and public surfaces in their neighbourhoods, we investigated the stability and identifiability of these microbiota traces on a timescale of hours to days.
resultsUsing a Canberra distance-based method of comparing skin and surface microbiomes, we found that a person could be accurately matched to their household in 84% of tests and to their neighbourhood in 50% of tests, and that matching accuracy did not decay for household surfaces over the 10-day study period, although it did for public surfaces. The time of day at which a skin or surface sample was taken affected matching accuracy, and 160 species across all sites were found to have a significant variation in abundance between morning and evening samples. We hypothesised that daily routines drive a rhythm of daytime dispersal from the pooled public surface microbiome followed by normalisation of a person's microbiome by contact with their household microbial reservoir, and Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs) supported dispersal from public surfaces to skin as the major dispersal route among all sites studied.
conclusionsThese results suggest that in addition to considering the decay of microbiota traces with time, diurnal patterns in microbiome exposure that contribute to the human skin microbiome assemblage must also be considered in developing this as a potential forensic method. Video Abstract.
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