A novel Gram-staining-negative gammaproteobacterium, designated IITR-13T, was isolated from a pesticide-contaminated soil and characterized using a polyphasic approach. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the strain showed the closest similarity (98.7 %) to Rheinheimera tangshanensis JA3-B52T followed by Rheinheimera texasensis A62-14BT (97.7 %) and Rheinheimera soli BD-d46T (97.3 %). The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of the novel strain to other members of the genus Rheinheimera was < 97.3 %. However, DNA-DNA hybridization between strain IITR-13T and the type strains of R. tangshanensis, R. texasensis and R. soli was 47.5 �� 0.6, 42.4 �� 0.4 and 39.8 �� 0.3 %, respectively; these values are less than 70 %, a threshold value for delineation of a novel species. The strain had C12 : 0 3-OH, C16 : 0, C17 : 1�s8c, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1�s6c/C16 : 1�s7c) and C18 : 1�s6c as the major fatty acids. The major isoprenoid quinones detected for strain IITR-13T were ubiquinone Q-8 and menaquinone MK-7.The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and seven unknown phospholipids. Based on phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics and analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence, the novel strain should be assigned to a novel species, for which the name Rheinheimera mesophila sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain IITR-13T (= MTCC 12064T = DSM 29723T). Also, we report the draft genome sequence of Rheinheimera mesophila IITR-13T; the draft genome sequence includes 3 749 903 bases and comprises 3449 predicted coding sequences, with a G+C content of 47.8 %. It consists of 102 contigs (>1000 bp).