An abundance of data supports the hypothesis that an individual may be identified based on their microbiome, the unique collection of microorganisms that inhabit multiple microhabitats on and in the body. However, its rate of membership change has yet to be heavily studied. Unlike DNA, a microbiome does not remain constant due to environmental factors and these changes can in turn affect the ability to identify a person. The objective of this study is to determine the time it takes for an individual’s oral microbiome to shift in response to food, objects, or the environment. Samples were collected over a period of several weeks, extracted, and amplified by PCR using universal 16S ribosomal RNA primers, which allows analysis of a wide variety of prokaryotic species. Denaturing Temperature Gradient Differential Electrophoresis (DTGDE) was employed for observing change in microbiome composition. With this technique, changes in the patterns and intensities of bands correlate with changes in the microbial populations. In this presentation we will report how the microbial populations shifted, the time interval in which these changes occurred, and what these results may mean to forensic science.   <br/>

Analysis of microbial changes in the human oral cavity

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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