Genital and female genitals offer distinctive microbes
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Sexual partners transmit distinctive reproductive microbium to each other during sexual intercourse, a discovery that can have effects on criminal investigations into sexual assault.
Brendan Chapman At the University of Murdoch in Perth, West Australia, his colleagues collected swabs of the genital organs for 12 unilateral couples of two different sexes, then used RNA sequence to determine the microbial signatures for each participant. The researchers asked couples to refrain from sex for two days and two weeks, and took follow -up samples a few hours after sexual intercourse.
“We have found that these genetic signatures from female bacteria were discovered in their male partners and vice versa,” says Chapman. This change in the “sex” of the person, as the team called it, could be useful in criminal investigations, he says.
The amount of transportation from a couple to a couple varied, and the team also found that not even the use of a condom fully prevented the movement of sex from one partner to another. However, one of the main restrictions of the results was that female sex had changed dramatically during a period.
Chapman says that although there may be some homogeneity of microbes for mono -long -term couples, bacterial population is clearly different between the sexes.
“The great benefit we enjoy with the penis and vaginal microbes is that because of the huge difference in the two environments, we notice the different types of bacteria on each of them,” says Chapman. For example, the penis is often a surface that resembles the skin, and thus reflects the similarities with the skin microbium. We see the types of anaerobic bacteria in vaginal types and air species on the penis. “
As such, many of these bacteria cannot continue indefinitely in the opposite environment, he says. “It is somewhat similar to the comparison of earth and sea animals – some of which live exclusively in one location or in another location and will die if removed, but also some of those who move happily and continue.”
After creating the transfer of bacteria during sexual intercourse, the team now hopes to prove that the gender of the individual is unique, such as a fingerprint or DNA. “I think there is enough diversity and uniqueness in the gender of everyone, but there is still a little work that must be done in order to prove that with a strong technique enough to face the challenges of forensic science,” says Chapman.
If researchers are able to prove this, this may help in sexual assault investigations, especially investigations that are not ejaculated by males, or if he suffers from wondering or using a condom. “Bacterial genetic features may be able to install or oppose proposals or certificates about what happened in alleged sexual assault situations,” he says, ” Dennis Mackenvin At the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
He says that the standard features of human DNA will always be given in such cases because of its great strength to distinguish between individuals, but sex can provide a useful alternative. “The genetic features may one day complement the DNA guides or may even help refer to the perpetrator of the sexual assault in rare cases where DNA definitions are not available,” says Mckenvin.
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