A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-spore-forming, non-flagellated, non-gliding and rod-shaped bacterial strain, HPTF-2(T), was isolated from a tidal flat in the Yellow Sea in South Korea, and subjected to a taxonomic study using a polyphasic approach. Strain HPTF-2(T) grew optimally at 30 degrees C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and in the presence of 2.0%(w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain HPTF-2(T) fell within the clade comprising the type strains of species of the genus Maribacter. Strain HPTF-2(T) exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 97.1-98.0% to the type strains of Maribacter stanieri, M. orientalis, M. arcticus, M. dokdonensis, M. confluentis, M. aquivivus, M. sedimenticola and M. caenipelagi, and of 95.1-96.7% to the type strains of the other species of the genus Maribacter. Strain HPTF-2 T contained MK-6 as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C-17 (:) (0) 3-OH, iso-C-15 (:) (0) and iso-C-15 : (1)Gas the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids of strain HPTF-2(T) were phosphatidylethanolamine and two unidentified lipids. Mean DNA-DNA relatedness values of strain HPTF-2(T) with the type strains of the nine phylogenetically related species of the genus Maribacter were 10-26 %. The DNA G+C content of strain HPTF-2(T) was 38.4 mol%. The differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain HPTF-2(T) is separated from other species of the genus Maribacter. On the basis of the data presented, strain HPTF-2(T) represents a novel species of the genus Maribacter, for which the name Maribacter litorisediminis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HPTF-2(T) (= KCTC 52251(T) = NBRC 112297(T)).