A yellow-coloured bacterial strain, designated BP-5(T), was isolated from a water sample of a cold spring located in the Hsinchu area of northern Taiwan. Cells of the strain were Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rods with a polar flagellum. The isolate was able to grow at 15-42 degrees C, 0-1 % NaCl and pH 6-8. The predominant fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C(16 : 1)omega7c and/or iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH), C(16 : 0) and C(18 : 1)omega7c. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone 8. The DNA G+C content was 63.2 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain BP-5(T) belonged to the class Betaproteobacteria and was a member of the family Neisseriaceae. Its closest phylogenetic neighbours were Gulbenkiania mobilis E4FC31(T) (95.0 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Chromobacterium subtsugae PRAA4-1(T) (95.0 %), Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472(T) (94.3 %), Vogesella indigofera ATCC 19706(T) (93.8 %) and Aquitalea magnusonii TRO-001DR8(T) (93.7 %). On the basis of the evidence from this polyphasic study, strain BP-5(T) is considered to represent a novel species of a new genus, for which the name Pseudogulbenkiania subflava gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Pseudogulbenkiania subflava is BP-5(T) (=BCRC 17727(T) =LMG 24211(T)).