TABLE 1.

List of human post-mortem microbiome studies which include female reproductive tract, skin and/or oral cavity samples in the last 5 years.

Niches	Study aim	Sequencing	Population and sample size	Main outcome	Main pitfall	References
Brain, heart, liver, spleen, prostate, and uterus	Estimating minimum PMI and cause of death	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing	158 samples	Reproductive organs (uterus and prostate) were the last internal organs to decay during human decomposition	Larger population size is needed to further account for variation due to (a)biotic factors	Lutz et al., 2020
			40 human bodies (14 female, 26 male)
			6 body sites
Skin: nose and ear	Estimating minimum PMI	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing	144 samples	Machine learning model predicted the PMI with an average error of 2 days	Model was based on only four human bodies that were sampled longitudinally	Johnson et al., 2016
			21 human bodies
			2 body sites
Skin: left hip, right hip, left bicep, right bicep, left upper hip, right upper hip, left knee, groin, head	Understanding microbially mediated processes during decomposition on different soil substrates	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing ITS amplicon sequencing	2 human bodies during winter	Soil type was not a dominant factor driving community development in the process of decomposition	Limited population size with no information on sex	Metcalf et al., 2016
			3 skin sites
			143 days
			2 human bodies during spring
			8 skin sites
			82 days
Eyes, ears, mouth, nose, rectum, thigh skin	Estimating minimum PMI for buried bodies	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing	2 male bodies	Multidisciplinary methodology identified temporal changes in morphology, skeletal muscle protein decomposition, entomology, and microbiome for buried bodies	Model was based on only two human bodies of which multiple samples were taken	Pittner et al., 2020
			10 timepoints
Skin: right hand palm	Linking objects at the death scene to deceased individuals	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing	11 male bodies	Objects could be traced to deceased individual 75% of the time	Ante-mortem population was not always a demographic representation of the deceased study population	Kodama et al., 2019
			5 female bodies
			30 living individuals
			79 skin samples
			98 object samples
Eyes, nose,ears, mouth, umbilicus rectum	1. Predicting the ante-mortem health condition of the deceased 2. Comparing three machine learning methods to predict PMI, location of death, and manner of death 3. Predicting cause and manner of death	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing	47 male bodies 141 female bodies 6 body sites 1 timepoint	1. Microbial biodiversity from the mouth could predict ante-mortem host health condition (e.g., heart disease) 2. Analysis of post-mortem microbiota from more than thee anatomic areas had limited additional value 3. Beta-dispersion, and case demographic data reflected forensic death determination	Only one timepoint (majority of cases with estimated PMI of <72 h) which does not account for variability within a body	1. Pechal et al., 2018 2. Zhang et al., 2019 3. Kaszubinski et al., 2020a
Mouth: palate, tongue, inner cheek mucosa and tooth surfaces	Estimating minimum PMI	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing	1 male body	Post-mortem microbial succession in the oral cavity changed in a temporal way according to oxygen availability	Limited population size with large variability	Adserias-Garriga et al., 2017b
			2 female bodies
			8 timepoints
			5 body sites
External auditory canal, eyes, nares, mouth, umbilicus, and rectum	Studying the impact of coexisting conditions such as frozen affect the human microbiome at the time of discovery	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing	1 male body 1 female body 3 timepoints	The microbial diversity increased throughout the thawing process	Association with time since death or cause of death	Pechal et al., 2017
Blood, brain, buccal cavity, heart, liver, and spleen	Estimating minimum PMI	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing	66 samples	Microbial communities demonstrated time-, organ-, and sex-dependent changes	Niche sampling was not equal for all deceased individuals	Javan et al., 2016b
			27 human bodies (12 female, 15 male)
			6 body sites
Mouth, external left/right cheeks external left/right bicep region, torso, and rectum	Studying outdoor decomposition under natural conditions	16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and 454 pyro- sequencing	1 male body	Shifts in community structure were recorded and associated with major decomposition and related events	Limited population size with large variability	Hyde et al., 2015
			1 female body
			10 timepoints

The bold terms refer to the most relevant niches.