Strain DCY21(T), a Gram-negative, gliding and rod-shaped aerobic bacterium was isolated from soil of a ginseng field in the Republic of Korea and characterized using a polyphasic approach in order to determine its taxonomic position. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain DCY21(T) clustered with the species of the genus Lysobacter. It was closely related to Lysobacter gummosus LMG 8763(T) (97.9 %), Lysobacter capsici YC5194(T) (97.6 %), Lysobacter antibioticus DSM 2044(T) (97.5 %), Lysobacter niastensis DSM 18481(T) (97.2 %) and Lysobacter enzymogenes DSM 2043(T) (96.9 %). The major cellular fatty acids of strain DCY21(T) were iso-C(15 : 0) (34.3 %), iso-C(17 : 1)omega9c (19.5 %) and iso-C(17 : 0) (17.2 %) and the major isoprenoid quinone was Q-8. The major polar lipids of strain DCY21(T) were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidyl-N-methylethanolamine. The G+C content of the total DNA was 65.4 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness values, and biochemical and physiological characteristics strongly supported the genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain DCY21(T) from species of the genus Lysobacter. Strain DCY21(T) therefore represents a novel species, for which the name Lysobacter soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DCY21(T) (=KCTC 22011(T) =LMG 24126(T)).