Bacterial strain V2M44(T) was isolated from forest soil from the Changbai Mountains, Heilongjiang Province, China. Cells of strain V2M44(T) were Gram-negative, rod-shaped and 0.3-0.4 mum in diameter and 1.5-2.5 mum long. The cells were strictly aerobic and were motile by means of peritrichous flagella. Growth occurred at 20-33 degrees C (optimum, 29-31 degrees C), at pH 5-8 (optimum, pH 6.0-7.0) and in the presence of 0-0.1 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0.05 %). Strain V2M44(T) contained C(17 : 1)omega6c (38.9 %) and summed feature 7 (comprising C(18 : 1)omega7 c, C(18 : 1)omega9t and/or C(18 : 1)omega12t, 31.5 %) as the major cellular fatty acids and Q-10 as the major respiratory quinone. The major polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol along with two unidentified phospholipids and four unidentified glycolipids. The major component in the polyamine pattern was sym-homospermidine. The DNA G+C content was 65.8 mol%. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain V2M44(T) was phylogenetically related to members of the genus Sphingomonas, with sequence similarities ranging from 92.0-95.8 %. Based on these results, it is concluded that strain V2M44(T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas changbaiensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is V2M44(T) (=CGMCC 1.7057(T)=NBRC 104936(T)).