Dataset Information

Forensic Microbiome Database: A Tool for Forensic Geolocation Meta-Analysis Using Publicly Available 16S rRNA Microbiome Sequencing.

ABSTRACT: The human microbiome has been proposed as a tool to investigate different forensic questions, including for the identification of multiple personal information. However, the fragmented state of the publicly available data has retarded the development of analysis techniques and, therefore, the implementation of microbiomes as a forensic tool. To address this, we introduce the forensic microbiome database (FMD), which is a collection of 16S rRNA data and associated metadata generated from publicly available data. The raw data was further normalized and processed using a pipeline to create a standardized data set for downstream analysis. We present a website allowing for the exploration of geolocation signals in the FMD. The website allows users to investigate the taxonomic differences between microbiomes harvested from different locations and to predict the geolocation of their data based on the FMD sequences. All the results are presented in dynamic graphics to allow for a rapid and intuitive investigation of the taxonomic distributions underpinning the geolocation signals and prediction between locations. Apart from the forensic aspect, the database also allows exploration and comparison of microbiome samples from different geolocation and between different body sites. The goal of the FMD is to provide the scientific and non-scientific communities with data and tools to explore the possibilities of microbiomes to answer forensic questions and serve as a model for any future such databases.

SUBMITTER: Singh H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8022992 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Microorganisms are ubiquitous in the biosphere, playing a crucial role in both biogeochemistry of the planet and human health. However, identifying these microorganisms and defining their function are challenging. Widely used approaches in comparative metagenomics, 16S amplicon sequencing and whole genome shotgun sequencing (WGS), have provided access to DNA sequencing analysis to identify microorganisms and evaluate diversity and abundance in various environments. However, advances in parallel high-throughput DNA sequencing in the past decade have introduced major hurdles, namely standardization of methods, data storage, reproducible interoperability of results, and data sharing. The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), established by the National Science Foundation, enables all researchers to address queries on a regional to continental scale around a variety of environmental challenges and provide high-quality, integrated, and standardized data from field sites across the U.S. As the amount of metagenomic data continues to grow, standardized procedures that allow results across projects to be assessed and compared is becoming increasingly important in the field of metagenomics. We demonstrate the feasibility of using publicly available NEON soil metagenomic sequencing datasets in combination with open access Metagenomics Rapid Annotation using the Subsystem Technology (MG-RAST) server to illustrate advantages of WGS compared to 16S amplicon sequencing. Four WGS and four 16S amplicon sequence datasets, from surface soil samples prepared by NEON investigators, were selected for comparison, using standardized protocols collected at the same locations in Colorado between April-July 2014. The dominant bacterial phyla detected across samples agreed between sequencing methodologies. However, WGS yielded greater microbial resolution, increased accuracy, and allowed identification of more genera of bacteria, archaea, viruses, and eukaryota, and putative functional genes that would have gone undetected using 16S amplicon sequencing. NEON open data will be useful for future studies characterizing and quantifying complex ecological processes associated with changing aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

Dataset Information

Forensic Microbiome Database: A Tool for Forensic Geolocation Meta-Analysis Using Publicly Available 16S rRNA Microbiome Sequencing.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets