A bacterial strain, designated TTM-43T, was isolated from a water sample taken from the Caohu River in Taiwan and characterized using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Cells of strain TTM-43T were Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, motile by gliding, rod-shaped and surrounded by a thick capsule. The strain formed bright-yellow colonies. Growth occurred at 15-30 �XC (optimum, 20 �XC), at pH 5-9 (optimum, pH 6) and with 0-0.3% NaCl (optimum growth in the absence of added NaCl). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain TTM-43T belonged to the genus Flavobacterium and was most closely related to Flavobacterium terrae R2A1-13T, with 97.8% sequence similarity. Strain TTM-43T contained iso-C15:0 (24.9%), iso-C15:1 G (12.6%), summed feature 9 (iso-C17:1�s9c and/or 10-methyl C16:0; 12.2%), iso-C17:0 3-OH (10.9%), iso-C15:0 3-OH (7.3%) and iso-C16:0 (6.7%) as the predominant fatty acids. The major isoprenoid quinone was MK-6. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine and several uncharacterized aminophospholipids and phospholipids. The major polyamine was homospermidine. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain TTM-43T was 31 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness of strain TTM-43T with respect to type strains of recognized species of the genus Flavobacterium was less than 70%. On the basis of phylogenetic inference and phenotypic data, strain TTM-43T should be assigned to a novel species, for which the name Flavobacterium brevivitae sp. nov. is presented. The type strain is TTM-43T (=BCRC 80913T=KCTC 42744T=LMG 29004T).