Isolation and Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Winter Salad (Local Pickle) during Fermentation Using 16S rRNA Gene Sequence Analysis

Winter salad is a kind of pickle made of different vegetables and is consumed specially in Khorasan Province. The spontaneous fermentation process is mainly carried out by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The aim of this study was to isolate and identify the LAB species involved in winter salad fermentation at different fermentation time intervals to introduce the native strains. In order to classify selected isolates that seemed LAB, according to preliminary experiments, biochemical tests were performed. Forty-five selected isolate genotypically identified based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results show that the analysis with 16s rRNA gene sequencing could successfully identify eight species, including Pediococcus (51.1%), Lactobacillus (26.7%), Weissella (11.1%), Enterococcus (6.7%) and Leuconostoc (4.4%). Although Weissella cibaria and Lactobacillus plantarum were the predominant LAB in the early periods of winter salad fermentation, Pediococcus pentosaceus was the predominant LAB at the later periods. Practical ApplicationsFermented vegetables are usually used as seasoning in Iran. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine fermented vegetables lactic acid flora using molecular methods, in Iran. Indigenous starter bacteria are normally considered as genetic resources, and strains obtained from this study could be used in the industry and some of them may be considered as probiotic strains.