The accuracy of Post-mortem interval (PMI) is one of the prime importance of Forensic pathology at present. A few methods like RNA assay (correlation between RNA degradation and PMI), use of mRNA markers in PMI prediction is very fruitful but are still in their early development. A recent study remarkedly established the significance of gene expression in this regard. A team led by Roderic Guigó utilized the access to GTEx project in understanding the impact of PMI on change in gene expression.
They found that many genes change expression in a tissue-specific manner over relatively short PMIs. They further compared ante- and post-mortem blood samples to find out the transcriptional events (ongoing regulation of transcription) caused by death. In short, their findings summarize that post-mortem transcriptomic changes are the result of both regulated gene expression as well as RNA…
