Öz
In this study, it was aimed to isolate, identify, and determine some starter culture characteristics of lactic acid bacteria from yoghurts produced by traditional methods, collected from five provinces in the Western Black Sea Region. Identification of strains was performed with the MALDI-TOF MS Biotyper system. Of the 84 isolates isolated, 2 were identified as Lactobacillus helveticus, 2 as Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, 3 as Limosilactobacillus fermentum, 1 as Enterococcus faecalis and 76 as Lactobacillus delbrueckii. The isolates were found to be susceptible to erythromycin, teicoplanin, streptomycin, rifampicin, ampicillin, clindamycin, cefotaxime, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, and vancomycin, and resistant to nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, gentamicin and trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole. It was determined that the isolates showed antimicrobial activity against Salmonella Typhimurium and E. coli O157:H7, but the antimicrobial effect was low against Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus. The acidity produced by 8 of the isolates was found to be between 0.9 and 0.95 %. In addition, it was determined that 74 isolates produced diacetyl. Proteinase activity and resistance to phages of 26 strains with high starter potential were investigated. It was determined that 5 of the strains did not show proteinase activity and according to the phage resistance test results, 8 of the isolates were sensitive to Ф709-X1 phage, and 12 Lactobacillus delbrueckii isolates were resistant to 15 different bacteriophages used in the study. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the isolated cultures have the potential to be used as a starter culture in terms of the investigated characteristics.