A Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterial strain, YC6729(T), was isolated from vermicompost collected at Masan, Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated by a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strain YC6729(T) grew optimally at 30 °C and at pH 6.5-8.5. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain YC6729(T) belongs to the genus Chitinophaga in the family Chitinophagaceae. It was related most closely to Chitinophaga terrae KP01(T) (96.4 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Chitinophaga ginsengisegetis Gsoil 040(T) (96.1 %), Chitinophaga arvensicola IAM 12650(T) (96.1 %) and Chitinophaga pinensis DSM 2588(T) (93.3 %). Strain YC6729(T) contained MK-7 as the major menaquinone and homospermidine as the major polyamine. The fatty acids of strain YC6729(T) were iso-C(15 : 0), C(16 : 1)ω5c, iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH, C(16 : 0), anteiso-C(18 : 0) and/or C(18 : 2)ω6,9c, iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH and/or C(16 : 1)ω7c, C(14 : 0), iso-C(15 : 0) 3-OH, iso-C(15 : 1) G, C(18 : 1)ω5c, iso-C(15 : 1) I and/or C(13 : 0) 3-OH, C(13 : 0) 2-OH, C(16 : 0) 3-OH and unknown fatty acid ECL 13.565. The polar lipid profile contained phosphatidylethanolamine, unknown aminolipids and unknown lipids. The total DNA G+C content of strain YC6729(T) was 48.9 mol%. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data showed that strain YC6729(T) represents a novel species of the genus Chitinophaga, for which the name Chitinophaga eiseniae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YC6729(T) ( = KACC 13774(T) = DSM 22224(T)).