thanatomicrobiome

noun

The microbiome existing in a mammalian host after it dies.

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Meanings

nounthanatomicrobiome (uncountable)
  1. uncountablebiologyThe microbiome existing in a mammalian host after it dies.

    What happens to these cells after human host death, defined here as the thanatomicrobiome (i.e., thanatos-, Greek defn., death), is not clear.

    2014 August 1, Ismail Can, Gulnaz T. Javan, Alexander E. Pozhitkov, Peter A. Noble, “Distinctive thanatomicrobiome signatures found in the blood and internal organs of humans”, in Journal of Microbiological Methods, →DOI
    3 more examples

    Future studies should collect data based on these variables to investigate the thanatomicrobiome of the decomposing tissue in addition to soil microbiome interactions.

    2015, K A Perrault, T Rai, B H Stuart, S L Forbes, “Seasonal comparison of carrion volatiles in decomposition soil using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–time of flight mass spectrometry”, in Analytical Methods

    There is currently a paucity of explorations of the thanatomicrobiome (thanatos-, Greek for death) and epinecrotic communities (microbial communities residing in and/or moving on the surface of decomposing remains).

    2016 February 24, Gulnaz T. Javan, Sheree J. Finley, Zain Abidin, Jennifer G. Mulle, “The Thanatomicrobiome: A Missing Piece of the Microbial Puzzle of Death”, in Frontiers in Microbiology

    Thanatomicrobiome studies suggest that microbial succession after death may have the potential to reveal important postmortem biomarkers for the identification of time of death.

    2018 May 10, Courtnee Bell, Jeremy Wilkinson, BK Robertson, Gulnaz T. Javan, “Sex-related differences in the thanatomicrobiome in postmortem heart samples using bacterial gene regions V1-2 and V4”, in Leterrs of Applied in Microbiology

Origin

From thanato- + microbiome.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

thanatomicrobiome. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thanatomicrobiome

MLA

“thanatomicrobiome.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thanatomicrobiome. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thanatomicrobiome,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thanatomicrobiome.

Source: thanatomicrobiome on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.