Challenges and prospects for the application of skin microbiome to forensic individual identification: A narrative...

The microbiome has been at the center of a cross-section of disciplines with a wide range of applications and research methodologies, the impact of which is also reflected in forensic science. The skin microbiome is considered a "microbial fingerprint" due to its highly personalized characteristics and can be used for forensic individual identification. This narrative review systematically combs through the literature on skin microbiome and forensic applications, focusing on the characteristics, current applications, challenges, and future prospects of the skin microbiome in the field of forensic individual identification. It first explores host specificity, temporal stability, and marker characteristics. Then, by linking individuals with objects, individuals, and the environment, it analyzes the applications in forensic scenarios. It also introduces two commonly used main analytical techniques and their respective advantages and disadvantages. With the development of technology, machine learning has gradually been applied to forensic work. However, there are still four major challenges in practical application, namely ethical, technical, database and biological challenges. In this context, we provide a standardized process through a hypothetical case and propose a multi-omics collaborative analysis framework for the first time, combining metagenomics, metabolomics, and non-omics data (such as geographical information, image records) to illustrate its enhanced effects in scenarios such as sexual assault and disaster victim identification. Overall, despite the challenges, the application of skin microbiome in forensic science is promising and is expected to play an important role in the future of forensic practice.