The determination of meat species by PCR-RFLP method using mitochondrial ND4 gene in pastırma, a traditional dry cured meat product

Abstract

Pastırma is a high value, traditional, dry cured, and edible coated meat product. For economic and sociocultural reasons, it isimportant to know which meat species are used in pastırma. The present study aims to carry out the determination of the meat speciesin pastırma. A total of 144 pastırma samples were collected from different stores. After genomic DNA isolation, the total DNAs obtainedwere subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using specially designed novel primers amplifying the mitochondrial ND4 (MTND4)gene region, specific for cattle (Bos taurus), water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), horse (Equus caballus), and donkey (Equus asinus)species. For the identification of the meat species, gel purified 952 bp PCR products were digested with fast digest SaqAI restrictionenzymes selected based on preliminary in silico analyses. The results of the present study revealed that all of the pastırma samples weremade from cattle meat. Cross-reactions and false-positive identifications are serious problems in routine determination of the meatspecies in food control laboratories. It is important to perform fast, inexpensive determination with high sensitivity and specificityfor the identification of meat species. This study has shown that meat species can be detected with high specificity in products such aspastırma, which uses large pieces of meat cuts.