An aerobic, Gram-negative, motile, non-pigmented bacterium, strain KMM 3042 T , isolated from a deep-sea brittle star in the Fiji Sea, was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed marine Mn(II)-oxidizing isolate S185-2B as the closest neighbour of strain KMM 3042 T (99.9 % sequence similarity). The two strains formed a distinct lineage within the genus Pseudomonas adjacent to the members of the Pseudomonas borbori cluster, sharing highest sequence similarity of 97.4 and 97.0 %, respectively, with P. borbori DSM 17834 T and Pseudomonas flavescens DSM 12071 T . The DNA-DNA hybridization value (71 %) between strains KMM 3042 T and S185-2B confirmed their assignment to the same species. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis, DNA-DNA hybridization and physiological and biochemical characterization, strains KMM 3042 T and S185-2B should be assigned to a novel species of the genus Pseudomonas, for which the name Pseudomonas marincola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KMM 3042 T (5NRIC 0729 T 5JCM 14761 T ).Pseudomonas-like bacteria are considered to be common members of microbial communities in marine environments. Relatively few species belonging to the genus Pseudomonas (sensu stricto) have been recovered from seawater or marine sediments, including Pseudomonas stutzeri (Baumann et al., 1983;Rosselló -Mora et al., 1993), P. alcaligenes, P. pseudoalcaligenes (Palleroni, 1984), P. balearica (Bennasar et al., 1996) and P. alcaliphila (Yumoto et al., 2001). At the same time, little is known about well-defined Pseudomonas species associated with deep-sea invertebrates. Recently, we have proposed two novel Pseudomonas species, Pseudomonas pachastrellae, associated with a deep-sea sponge Pachastrella sp. (Romanenko et al., 2005a), and Pseudomonas xanthomarina, isolated from an ascidian specimen (Halocynthia aurantium). Strain KMM 235, also isolated from an ascidian (Didemnum sp.), was characterized as a novel genomovar of P. stutzeri (Romanenko et al., 2005b).During a survey of the biodiversity of micro-organisms isolated from deep-sea invertebrates, Pseudomonas-like strain KMM 3042 T was isolated from an unidentified brittle-star specimen and subjected to taxonomic analysis. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain KMM 3042 T was found to be closely related to Pseudomonas sp. strain S185-2B (99.9 % sequence similarity). Strain S185-2B was isolated from a water sample from a seasonally anoxic fjord and characterized by Francis & Tebo (2001) as a Mn(II)-oxidizing bacterium. In comparison with named species, strain KMM 3042 T shared the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Pseudomonas borbori DSM 17834 T (97.4 %) and Pseudomonas flavescens DSM 12071 T (97.0 %), and showed less than 97 % similarity to other recognized Pseudomonas species. In the present study, the marine isolates KMM 3042 T and S185-2B were investigated to clarify their taxonomic position. Strains KMM 3042 T and S185-2B appeared to have similar phenotypic characteristic...