A novel Gram-stain-negative, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterial strain, HBC54T, was isolated from periphyton during a
Microcystis
bloom. Based on the results of the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain HBC54T was closely related to
Novosphingobium aerophilum
4Y4T (98.36 %),
Novosphingobium aromaticivorans
DSM 12444T (98.08 %),
Novosphingobium huizhouense
c7T (97.94 %),
Novosphingobium percolationis
c1T (97.65 %),
Novosphingobium subterraneum
DSM 12447T (97.58 %),
Novosphingobium olei
TW-4T (97.58 %) and
Novosphingobium flavum
UCT-28T (97.37 %). The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between HBC54T and its related type stains were below 78.97 and 23.7 %, which are lower than the threshold values for species delineation. The major fatty acids (>10.0 %) were identified as C14 : 0 2-OH, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1
ω7c and/or C16 : 1
ω6c) and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1
ω7c and/or C18 : 1
ω6c) and the respiratory quinone was ubiquinone Q-10. The main polar lipids detected in the strain were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, diphosphatidylglycerol and three unidentified phospholipids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 64.8 mol%. Strain HBC54T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus
Novosphingobium
, for which the name Novosphingobium cyanobacteriorum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HBC54T (=KCTC 92033T=LMG 32427T).