Research progress of soil microbes application in forensic science

Abstract:

Soil-related evidence has been used for decades in forensic science. Forensic soil comparison test is mainly based on its physical and chemical properties, such as soil appearance, color, elemental composition, mineralogical properties and soil inclusions. Recently, with the development of high-throughput sequencing technology, independent of the traditional culture techniques, microbial communities could be directly tested and analyzed through all its DNA information in the soil. Then we use this information for sample comparison or source speculation in mock or real case. This highlights the great value and potential application of soil microbial evidence in case investigation and justice. This review summarizes the recent domestic and foreign research progress in forensic soil microbes, points out the potential applications for soil microbial diversity test in the field of forensic science, analyzes the influencing factors of soil microbial community diversity, and finally discusses the existing problems and future development direction of forensic soil microbiology.

Key words:forensic science;soil evidence;soil microbes;high-throughput sequencing