1230-7483 Deciphering the microbial signature of death: advances in post-mortem microbial analysis Jak rozszyfrować mikrobiologiczną sygnaturę śmierci – postępy w pośmiertnej analizie drobnoustrojów Jangid Chitra author Dalal Jyoti author Kumari Kiran author Lovely Professional University 00et6q107 Correspondence to: Chitra Jangid Correspondence to: Jyoti Dalal jyotidalal417@gmail.com Correspondence to: Kiran Kumari 11 01 2024 134 2023 95 115 Copyright © 2024 2024 <p>Cadaver decomposition is a natural phenomenon intimately affected by numerous organisms such as insects, fungi, animals, and bacteria where they use the decaying body as their nutrition source. These organisms can be utilized in forensic science to estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI). The post-mortem interval refers to the time that has passed since the death of a person until the body was found. Forensic entomology is one of the popular approaches where successive colonization of insects on cadaver is studied to estimate PMI. However, sometime this method does not provide consistent results due to lack of insect activities during cold environment conditions or when crime scene is indoor. Therefore, a new approach is needed to aid forensic scientists to estimate PMI. Recently, researchers have noted that microbial communities have shown a predictable and clockwise successional pattern on decomposing cadavers and suggested this could be utilized to estimate PMI when this approach is etched with other established methods. The purpose of this review is to summarize some of the studies that have been conducted on the utility of microbial communities in estimating PMI and discuss the role of microbial communities in cadaver decomposition. </p> 1 1. Adserias-Garriga, J., Quijada, N. M., Hernandez, M., Rodríguez Lázaro, D., Steadman, D., Garcia-Gil, L. J. (2017). 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