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IntroductionPastırma is a traditional Turkish dry-cured meat product obtained by the curing and drying of the meat pieces obtained from certain parts of beef or buffalo carcasses and then drying again after covering them with çemen, a paste made from Trigonella foenum-graecum flour, fresh garlic, red pepper, and water (1). In the curing process, the first stage of pastırma production, nitrate is usually used as a curing agent along with salt (2,3). However, nitrite may be used alone or with nitrate in the process as a curing agent. In order to observe the expected effects of nitrate, nitrate should be converted to nitrite by microorganisms that have nitrate-reductase activity (4). The curing process for pastırma production can take a few days and curing temperature can range between refrigerator temperature and about 10 °C (1).Gram-positive, catalase-positive cocci (GCC + ), particularly coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS), are technologically important in cured meat products and play an important role in the color formation and stabilization, delaying the oxidation, aroma formation, and lipolytic and proteolytic activities (5,6). These microorganisms, which are susceptible to acid, can show good development due to the suitable pH value (>5.5) of pastırma (4). GCC + counts in pastırma range between 10 4 and 10 7 cfu/g and these microorganisms constitute the dominant microflora very often (2,3,7,8). It must be noted that high diversity has been observed within GCC + . Such species as Staphylococcus saprophyticus, S

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The lactic acid bacteria isolated from pastirma, produced under controlled conditions using two different curing temperatures (4°C or 10°C) and two different curing agents (150 mg/kg sodium nitrite or 300 mg/kg potassium nitrate), were subjected to genotypic (16S rRNA sequecing) identification. According to the identification results, 68 of 87 isolates (78.16%) was identified as Pediococcus pentosaceus. This species was followed by P. acidilactici (14.94%), Lactobacillus sakei (4.60%) and L. plantarum (2.30%), respectively. P. pentosaceus was dominant species in all curing applications (4°C/nitrate or nitrite or 10°C/nitrate or nitrite). Another species determined in all groups was P. acidilactici. While L. plantarum was only isolated from samples produced with nitrate (4°C or 10°C), L. sakei was isolated from samples produced with nitrite (4°C or 10°C). The effect of the curing agent on the biodiversity of lactic acid bacteria in pastirma was more effective than the curing temperature.

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