Phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analyses indicate that Brevibacterium oxydans is closely related to species of the genus Microbacterium, namely Microbacterium liquefaciens, Microbacterium luteolum and Microbacterium saperdae. DNA-DNA reassociation values of less than 60% between Brevibacterium oxydans and these three Microbacterium species support the distinctness of this misclassified Brevibacterium species, which is reclassified as Microbacterium oxydans comb. nov.