A Gram-negative, non-carbohydrate-utilizing, non-flagellated, motile, flexible, long rod-shaped, orange-pigmented bacterium, strain H6(T), was isolated from coastal seawater of Tianjin City, China, and its taxonomic position was investigated by using a polyphasic approach. Strain H6(T) grew optimally at 30 degrees C, in the presence of 2.0 % (w/v) NaCl and at pH 7.6. Menaquinone-6 (MK-6) was the sole respiratory quinone and the major fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) (36.5 % of the total), iso-C(15 : 1) (27.3 %) and iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH (10.8 %). The DNA G+C content of strain H6(T) was 34.6 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences demonstrated that strain H6(T) was related most closely to Lishizhenia caseinilytica JCM 13821(T) (97.8 % similarity). DNA-DNA relatedness between the two strains was 47.4 %. Strain H6(T) could be further differentiated from L. caseinilytica JCM 13821(T) based on activity of several enzymes, hydrolysis of casein and Tweens 40, 60 and 80 and production of H(2)S. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, genomic and phylogenetic data, strain H6(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Lishizhenia, for which the name Lishizhenia tianjinensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is H6(T) (=CGMCC 1.7005(T) =JCM 15141(T)).