A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile and coccoid-to short-rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain Dy73 T , was isolated from a microbial fuel cell that had been inoculated with rice paddy field soil and fed starch, peptone and fish extract as fuels. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence phylogeny, strain Dy73 T was affiliated with the genus Dysgonomonas in the phylum Bacteroidetes, and most closely related to Dysgonomonas mossii CCUG 43457 T with a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity value of 99.7 %. However, the DNA-DNA relatedness value between strain Dy73 T and Dysgonomonas mossii CCUG 43457 T was 34.8 %. In addition, strain Dy73 T was found to be different from other recognized species of the genus Dysgonomonas in taxonomically important traits, including habitat, DNA G+C content, bile resistance and fatty-acid composition. Based on these characteristics, strain Dy73 T represents a novel species of the genus Dysgonomonas for which the name Dysgonomonas oryzarvi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Dy73 T (5JCM 16859 T 5KCTC 5936 T ).