A Gram-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain, DS-57T, was isolated from soil from Dokdo, Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated using a polyphasic approach. It grew optimally at 25 degrees C and in trypticase soy broth without NaCl and trypticase soy broth with 0.5% NaCl. Strain DS-57T contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C15:0, C16:1omega7c and/or iso-C15:0 2-OH and iso-C17:0 3-OH as the major fatty acids. The DNA G+C content was 39.7 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain DS-57T was most closely related to the genus Pedobacter of the family Sphingobacteriaceae, clustering coherently with Pedobacter suwonensis, Pedobacter roseus and Pedobacter sandarakinus. Strain DS-57T exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 99.2, 97.9 and 97.2% with respect to the type strains of P. suwonensis, P. roseus and P. sandarakinus, respectively, and values less than 95.6 % with respect to the type strains of other Pedobacter species. Strain DS-57T exhibited levels of DNA-DNA relatedness of 45, 17 and 15 % with respect to the type strains of P. suwonensis, P. roseus and P. sandarakinus, respectively. Differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic distinctiveness and the DNA-DNA relatedness data, were sufficient to allow the classification of strain DS-57T as a species that is separate from recognized Pedobacter species. On the basis of phenotypic properties and phylogenetic distinctiveness, therefore, strain DS-57T represents a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DS-57T (=KCTC 12762T=DSM 17933T).