A Gram stain-positive, non-spore-forming, non-motile, short-rod actinomyces strain GXQ1321(T) was isolated from maritime surface sediments in Beihai (21 degrees 41 ' 21.65 '' N, 109 degrees 05 ' 76.56 '' E), Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and a number of categorization studies were performed. Following a period of 72 h of incubation at a temperature of 30 degrees C within a modified actinomycete culture medium, the colony was light-yellow, circular, smooth, central bulge, convex, opaque, with a 1.2-2.3 mm diameter. Strain GXQ1321(T) had the ability to degrade cellulose. Chemotaxonomic studies revealed that the major methylnaphthoquinones in strain GXQ1321(T) was MK-8(H-2). The most prevalent cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C-19:0, anteiso-C-15:0, anteiso-C-17:0, and iso-C-16:0. The whole-cell sugars of the strain GXQ1321(T) were identified rhamnose, xylose and glucose. Meso-diaminopimelic acid was found in the peptidoglycan hydrolysate, and the polar lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, three phosphoglycolipid, phosphatidylglycerol and two unknown glycolipid. This strain had 69.6% DNA G+C content. Strain GXQ1321(T) is classified as Brevibacterium based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence. It is closely related to Brevibacterium samyangense SST-8( T) (96.8%) and Brevibacterium rongguiense 5221( T) (96.3%). The average nucleotide identity (ANI) values of GXQ1321(T) and the above two type strains were 73.9-77.1%, and the digital DNA-DNA hybridisation (dDDH) values were 15.3-21.1%. Based on the phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and physiological data, strain GXQ1321(T) was considered to be a novel species of the genus Brevibacterium, named Brevibacterium litoralis sp. nov, with the type strain GXQ1321(T) (= MCCC 1K08964(T) = KCTC 59167( T)).