PRJNA540930
Bone surface decomposition
Microbial bone colonization is an important mechanism of postmortem skeletal degradation. However, the types and distributions of bone-colonizing microbes are not well characterized. The goals of this study were to (1) identify the types of microbes capable of colonizing different bone types and (2) relate microbial abundances, diversity and community composition to bone type and human skeletal DNA preservation. DNA extracts from 164 bone and tooth samples from three individuals were assessed for bacterial loading and microbial community composition and structure using targeted amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes.