Lactic Acid Bacteria (LABs), a member of probiotic bacteria play important roles in everyday life world-wide. In an effort to explore the possibility of isolating novel LABs, raw milk samples were collected from Alborzmountain regionsin the north of Iran.Primary investigations were performed to evaluate the probiotic potentials of the isolated strains. After characterization, isolates were categorized in 9 groups by High Resolution Melting Real-Time 16S rDNA PCR. Indicator strains of each group were identified by PCR-Sequencing and the presence of Glutamate Decarboxylase Gene was also investigated as a prominent probiotic characteristic. Three potential novel species; Pediococcus shahsavar, Enterococcus alborz and Pediococcus siga1and also a novel strain of Enterococcus faecalis (rudsar) were identified, and their sequences were submitted to NCBI. This studyshows the presence of high diversity of LABs in the raw milk of Iran Alborz mountain regions that warrants further research in this area.
