A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, non-motile, non-spore-forming, aerobic bacterial strain, designated BUT-2T, was isolated from activated sludge of one herbicide-manufacturing wastewater-treatment facility in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, China, and subjected to polyphasic taxonomic studies. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain BUT-2T shared the highest similarity with
Chryseomicrobium amylolyticum
(98.98 %), followed by
Chryseomicrobium imtechense
(98.88 %), with less than 96 % similarlity to members of the genera
Paenisporosarcina
,
Planococcus
,
Sporosarcina
and
Planomicrobium
. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain BUT-2T clustered with
C. amylolyticum
JC16T and
C. imtechense
MW10T, occupying a distinct phylogenetic position. The major fatty acid (>10 % of total fatty acids) type of strain BUT-2T was iso-C15 : 0. The quinone system comprised menaquinone MK-7 (77.8 %), MK-6 (11.9 %) and MK-8 (10.3 %). The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and some unidentified phospholipids. The cell-wall peptidoglycan type of strain BUT-2T was l-Orn-d-Glu. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain BUT-2T was 48.5 mol%. Furthermore, the DNA–DNA relatedness in hybridization experiments against the reference strain was lower than 70 %, confirming that strain BUT-2T did not belong to previously described species of the genus
Chryseomicrobium
. On the basis of its morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics as well as phylogenetic analysis, strain BUT-2T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus
Chryseomicrobium
, for which the name Chryseomicrobium
aureum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BUT-2T ( = CCTCC AB2013082T = KACC 17219T).