Microbial community signatures for estimation of postmortem time intervals

The human body provides a complex ecosystem for symbiotic habitation of a huge number of microorganisms. These commensal microorganisms provide a huge benefit to the living host by acting against many deadly infections. Once the host dies, many changes in the complex ecosystem of the human body take place. The personalized microbes of a human body undergo successional change as many exogenous microbes attack the nutrient-rich cadaver after death. The succession pattern change of microbes in human cadaver allows postulating different models for estimation of Postmortem time interval (PMI). Estimation of PMI has a broad prospect from the criminal investigation point of view. Though many techniques are being used nowadays to estimate PMI, all of them have their pros and cons. With the advent of advanced molecular biological techniques, studies on the thanatomicrobiome of a human cadaver have gained pace and provide a superior alternative for conventional methods of PMI estimation. This chapter summarizes the recent advancements in the changes in signature microflora postmortem with change in human microenvironment to postulate a consensus model for estimation of PMI.