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The Conversation
Jennifer DeBruyn, Professor of Environmental Microbiology, University of Tennessee

Your microbes live on after you die − a microbiologist explains how your necrobiome recycles your body to nourish new life

After you die, bacteria harvest your body for the nutrients that help push daisies. Matriyoshka/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Each human body contains a complex community of trillions of microorganisms that are important for your health while you’re alive. These microbial symbionts help you digest food, produce essential vitamins, protect you from infection and serve many other critical functions. In turn, the microbes, which are mostly concentrated in your gut, get to live in a relatively stable, warm environment with a steady supply of food.

But what happens to these symbiotic allies after you die?

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