A polyphasic study was carried out to clarify the taxonomic position of a Gram-negative bacterium isolated from soil cultivated with Korean ginseng in the Eumseong region of Korea. The novel strain, GP25-8(T), grew optimally at pH 6-7, 28 degrees C and 0-1 % NaCl (w/v). The major fatty acids were C(18 : 1)omega7c, summed feature 3 (C(16 : 1)omega7c/C(15 : 0) iso 2-OH) and C(16 : 0) (together representing 71.2 % of the total). The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities between strain GP25-8(T) and members of the genus Burkholderia ranged from 94.7 to 97.4 %, indicating that this novel strain was phylogenetically related to members of that genus. The novel strain showed the highest sequence similarities to Burkholderia caryophylli ATCC 25418(T) (97.4 %) and Burkholderia phenazinium LMG 2247(T) (97.2 %); the levels of DNA-DNA hybridization with these strains were 28 and 12 %, respectively. These results support the conclusion that strain GP25-8(T) represents a novel species within the genus Burkholderia, for which the name Burkholderia soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GP25-8(T) (=KACC 11589(T)=DSM 18235(T)).