A novel bacterial strain designated YN-59T was isolated from chili rhizosphere soil in China.The isolate was aerobic, Gram-positive, rod-shaped and formed ellipsoidal or oval spores positioned centrally in swollen sporangia.On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the isolated strain YN-59 was related to members of genus Cohnella.High levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity were found between strain YN-59 and Cohnella plantaginis DSM 25424T (98.5%) and Cohnella ginsengisoli DSM18997T (97.3%), the 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities between strain YN-59 and the other strains recognized members of the genus Cohnella were below 97%.The DNA-DNA hybridization values of strain YN-59 with Cohnella plantaginis DSM 25424T and Cohnella ginsengisoli DSM18997T were 44.2±8.4 % and 28.8±5.8 %, respectively.The DNA G+C content of strain YN-59r was 59.32mo1%.The major isoprenoid quinone was MK-7 and the predominant fatty acids were anteiso-C15∶0 (45.32%), iso-C16∶0 (19.19%), iso-C15∶0 (9.65%) and C16∶o (8.91%).The polar lipids of strain YN-59T consist of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, lyso-phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, glycolipid, unknown phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine, aminolipid and phosphatidylinositol mannosides.Diagnostic diamino acid in the cell wall was meso-Diaminopimelic.On the basis of its phenotypic and genotypic characteristics and levels of DNA-DNA hybridization, strain YN-59T was considered to represent a novel species of the genus Cohnella, for which the name Cohnella chilisis sp.nov.(Type strain YN-59T =CGMCC 1.12046T=JCM 19168T) is proposed.