A novel piezotolerant, mesophilic, facultatively anaerobic, organotrophic, polarly flagellated bacterium (strain LT13a(T)) was isolated from a deep sediment layer in the Nankai Trough (Leg 190, Ocean Drilling Program) off the coast of Japan. This organism used a wide range of organic substrates as sole carbon and energy sources: pyruvate, glutamate, succinate, fumarate, lactate, citrate, peptone and tryptone. Oxygen, nitrate, fumarate, ferric iron and cystine were used as electron acceptors. Maximal growth rates were observed at a hydrostatic pressure of 10 MPa. Hydrostatic pressure for growth was in the range 0.1-50 MPa. Predominant cellular fatty acids were 16:1 omega7c, 15: 0 iso, 16: 0 and 13: 0 iso. The G + C content of the DNA was 44.9 mol%. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequences, strain LT13a(T) was shown to belong to the gamma-Proteobacteria, being closely related to Shewanella putrefaciens (98%), Shewanella oneidensis (97%) and Shewanella baltica (96 %). Levels of DNA homology between strain LT13a(T) and S. putrefaciens, S. oneidensis and S. baltica were < 20 %, indicating that strain LT13a(T) represents a novel species. Genetic evidence and phenotypic characteristics showed that isolate LT13a(T) constitutes a novel species of the genus Shewanella, Because of the deep origin of the strain, the name Shewanella profunda sp. nov. is proposed, with LT13a(T) (= DSM 15900(T)-JCM 12080(T)) as the type strain.