--- title: Microbes and Microbiome: How Dust DNA Evidence Might Help Solve Crimes description: Scientists can use the DNA of dust fungi and microbes to find out its origin, an application that could prove useful in solving crime canonical: https://time.com/3823925/dust-microbes-forensics/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-15T20:13:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:15.789Z article:section: Health og:title: Can Specks of Dust Help Solve Crimes? og:description: Scientists can use the DNA of dust fungi and microbes to find out its origin, an application that could prove useful in solving crime og:url: https://time.com/3823925/dust-microbes-forensics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4f81c1252e819a4/6987eb482dce011d119e1538/dust-microbes-pollen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3378 og:image:height: 1900 og:image:alt: dust microbes dna og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Can Specks of Dust Help Solve Crimes? twitter:description: Scientists can use the DNA of dust fungi and microbes to find out its origin, an application that could prove useful in solving crime twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4f81c1252e819a4/6987eb482dce011d119e1538/dust-microbes-pollen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Can Specks of Dust Help Solve Crimes? > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Overstepping Boundaries: The Danger of Invasive Species [Watch (HLS stream): Overstepping Boundaries: The Danger of Invasive Species](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zHyAT7e9.m3u8) (2:18)  _Published 2013-12-04. What are invasive species, and why are they dangerous? TIME's Bryan Walsh explains how animals like the Asian carp, lionfish, and Burmese python can be a threat._  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 15, 2015 8:13 PM UTC  SEM of dust particles and pollen. SEM of dust particles and pollen. Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 15, 2015 8:13 PM UTC Call them the dust busters: Scientists are now able to take a sample of dust, sequence the DNA of its fungi and microbes and figure out where it came from, according to new [research](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0122605) published in the journal _PLOS ONE._ The application might prove useful in solving crimes. The researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Colorado, Boulder, had about 1,000 people across the country swab their homes’ outer door frames and send in samples of the dust. A lab sequenced all that dust DNA—fungi, microbes and all—from every state but North Dakota. (The scientists have nothing against North Dakota. It’s just that no one from the state sent in a sample.) Our nation’s door frames are home to a mind-boggling amount of diversity; researchers identified 40,000 unique fungal taxa from the samples. A single home, by comparison, usually only harbors about 700 fungal taxa. **MORE**: [Your Tiny Roommates: Meet the Microbes Living In Your Home](http://science.time.com/2013/09/11/your-tiny-roommates-meet-the-microbes-living-in-your-home/) Their goal was to glean where each fungal species tended to show up, which could be useful information in forensic investigations with this type of evidence. “We wanted to take either the presence or absence of these different species and get a smooth picture of where we expect the fungus to live,” explains Neal Grantham, one of the study’s authors and a PhD student in the department of statistics at North Carolina State University. By estimating the probability of seeing these different species at some location in the U.S., they were able to put a pin in a map of the most likely location of origin, he says. Half of their predictions got closer than 143 miles of the actual place of origin, and about five percent were within 35 miles of the dust’s doorframe. Down the line, mapping out the microbes of dust could help with forensics and law enforcement investigations, Grantham says. “This is not the first study that shows you can use bacteria and fungi in a forensics setting. But what our work contributes is a more objective statistical way to tackle these problems,” he says. The scientists are looking into whether the probability method might hold for other samples, like pollen. If it does, law enforcement could use a statistically sound probability instead of relying on pollen experts to divine where a sample might have originated, Grantham says. “‘Humans are ecosystems’ is the big microbiome message,” Grantham says. Now, our doorframes might be ecosystems, too. ## Transcript One of the biggest threats to endangered species isn't poaching, or pollution, or climate change. It's other animals. Here's what you need to know. Just look at the Asian carp, invasive species that have been threatening the US for years. The carp were imported by Midwest and fish farmers in the 1970s, eventually escaped due to flooding. The fish, which can grow as large as 110 pounds, who have a habit of leaping out of the water like silver missiles when they're threatened, are voracious eaters. US officials were so worried that the carp would make their way all the way up to the Mississippi River, and into the Great Lakes' ecosystem, that the White House named a carp czar in 2010, and has since spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defend the Lakes; but those efforts may be for naught. A new study found out last month that a number of grass carp, a subspecies of Asian carp, seemed to have established themselves in a river that leads directly in to the Great Lakes, which means they could be setting up the stage to breed for years. Then there's the lion fish, a spine three- tipped species that has wreaked havoc in the Atlantic since it was accidentally introduced during Hurricane Andrew back in 1992. Lion fish is a rapid breeder, and an indiscriminate hunter, consuming more than 40 species, including valuable commercial ones like the grouper. Like many invasive species, they're especially dangerous because native species have no innate fear of them until too late. On land, Burmese pythons, often released accidentally as pets by their owners, have begun to menace the Florida everglades. The python can grow nearly 20 feet, can take down everything from bobcats to small alligators. In 2012, [ unk ] the everglades from the drastic reduction in the number of small mammals that tend to make up the diet of the python, a sign the snakes are beginning to have a major impact on one of the most important ecosystems in the United States. Given the threat from invasive species, it's unsurprising that governments spend billions of dollars a year in trying to deal with it. And the problem's getting worse. Part of the [ unk ] mixing up habitats, putting animals from one part of the world to another; while growing international trade can ship species across the globe. The fight against invasive species has long been a losing battle, and [ unk ] led some scientists to say time to stop trying to fight. After all, a species that left its home in Africa millions of years ago has since spread to every corner of the world. It should be a familiar one. 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