A facultatively chemolithoautotrophic, thiosulfate-oxidizing, Gram-negative, aerobic, motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated ATSB16(T), was isolated from rhizosphere soils of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.). 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis demonstrated that this strain was closely related to Pandoraea pnomenusa LMG 18087(T) (96.7 % similarity), P. pulmonicola LMG 18016(T) (96.5 %), P. apista LMG 16407(T) (96.2 %), P. norimbergensis LMG 18379(T) (96.1 %) and P. sputorum LMG 18819(T) (96.0 %). Strain ATSB16(T) shared 96.0-96.4 % sequence similarity with four unnamed genomospecies of Pandoraea. The major cellular fatty acids of the strain ATSB16(T) were C(17 : 0) cyclo (33.0 %) and C(16 : 0) (30.6 %). Q-8 was the predominant respiratory quinone. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and two unidentified aminophospholipids. Hydroxyputrescine and putrescine were the predominant polyamines. The genomic DNA G+C content of the strain was 64.0 mol%. On the basis of the results obtained from this study, strain ATSB16(T) represents a novel species of the genus Pandoraea, for which the name Pandoraea thiooxydans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ATSB16(T) (=KACC 12757(T) =LMG 24779(T)).