Isolation Identification and Molecular Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria From Raw Milk Samples Collected from Erzurum Region

Due to its high-water content, milk is an important source of different microbial contents, especially lactic acid bacteria. This study aims to isolate and identify lactic acid bacteria from raw milk samples collected from Erzurum and its surroundings, and to introduce possible new species, or genera, to the taxonomy. For this purpose, DNAs of pure bacterial cultures obtained from 50 raw milk samples were isolated, isolates that differed from each other were selected by rep-PCR. A total of 11 different species and subspecies [Corynebacterium casei, Enterococcus italicus, E. durans, Lactococcus lactis, Lactococcos lactis subsp. lactis, Lactococcos lactis subsp. hordniae, Lactobacillus paracasei, Leuconostoc lactis, Staphylococcus succinis, Streptococcus parauberis and S. uberis] were determined in raw milk samples by 16S rRNA sequence analysis. It was concluded that the (GTG)5-PCR method was more successful than BOX-PCR in the identification of lactic acid bacteria isolated from raw milk samples at a species and subspecies level, and the isolate TS10, which was 98% similar to S. uberis, maybe a new species and should be re-examined with advanced diagnostic techniques.