A rod-shaped, yellow-pigmented, aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium, designated strain JO-1(T), was isolated from an apparently healthy Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, collected at Wan Island, Korea. It grew at 15-37 degrees C (optimum 30 degrees C) only in the presence of sea salts. Strain JO-1(T) hydrolysed casein, Tween 80 and starch. The major fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) (23.8 %), summed feature 3 (comprising C(16 : 1)omega7c and/or iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH; 14.5 %) and iso-C(15 : 1) G (14.1 %). Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain JO-1(T) was a member of the genus Tenacibaculum in the family Flavobacteriaceae, with sequence similarity of 94.6-97.8 % to the type strains of recognized members of the genus. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 31.4 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness levels between strain JO-1(T) and the five closest relatives, Tenacibaculum litoreum KCCM 42115(T), T. lutimaris KCTC 12302(T), T. aestuarii KCTC 12569(T), T. mesophilum DSM 13764(T) and T. adriaticum JCM 14633(T), were less than 28 %. Phylogenetic analyses and differences in physiological and biochemical characteristics suggested that strain JO-1(T) (=KCTC 22329(T) =JCM 15428(T)) should be classified as the type strain of a novel species within the genus Tenacibaculum, for which the name Tenacibaculum crassostreae sp. nov. is proposed.