Two bacterial strains, KMM 3891T and KMM 3892, were isolated from internal tissues of the marine mollusc Umbonium costatum collected from the Sea of Japan. The novel isolates were Gram-negative, aerobic, faint pink–reddish-pigmented, rod-shaped, non-motile, stenohaline and psychrotolerant bacteria that were unable to degrade most tested complex polysaccharides. Polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. Fatty acid analysis revealed C17 : 1
ω6c, C17 : 0, C16 : 0 and C16 : 1
ω7c as the dominant components. The major isoprenoid quinone was Q-7. The DNA G+C content of strain KMM 3891T was 51.7 mol%. According to phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences, strains KMM 3891T and KMM 3892 were positioned within the Gammaproteobacteria as a separate branch, sharing <93 % sequence similarity to their phylogenetic relatives including Saccharophagus degradans, Microbulbifer species, Endozoicomonas elysicola, Simiduia agarivorans and Teredinibacter turnerae. Based on phenotypic characterization and phylogenetic distance, the novel marine isolates KMM 3891T and KMM 3892 represent a new genus and species, for which the name Umboniibacter marinipuniceus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Umboniibacter marinipuniceus is KMM 3891T (=NRIC 0753T =JCM 15738T).