Evansella
Evansella is a genus of Gram-positive rod-shaped bacteria in the family "Bacillaceae" within the order "Bacillales". The type species for this genus is "Evansella cellulosilytica." Members of "Evansella" was transferred from the genus "Bacillus", a genus that has long been under close scrutiny by the scientific community due to its inclusion of many phylogenetically unrelated species. The original criteria used to assign species into "Bacillus" were vague and applied to many different species of bacteria, resulting in a large genus full of unrelated organisms with a diverse range of biochemical characteristics. To clarify the taxonomic relationships within  the genus, multiple phylogenetic studies have been conducted, resulting in the transfer of many species into novel genera such as "Virgibacillus, Solibacillus, Brevibacillus" and "Ectobacillus." Additionally, "Bacillus" has been restricted only include species closely related to "Bacillus subtilis" and "Bacillus cereus". The name "Evansella" is chosen to celebrate the American microbiologist Dr. Alice Catherine Evans (1885-1975, US Department of Agriculture) in recognition of her contributions to the field of bacteriology. Biochemical Characteristics and Molecular Signatures. Members of the genus "Evansella" can be aerobic or facultatively anaerobic. Cells are motile by means of peritrichous flagella. They all are endospore-forming  and catalase-positive. Species can be found in industrial areas and soda lakes. "Evansella" can survive in temperatures ranging from 15°C to 60°C, but optimal growth occurs in the range of 35-40°C. Three conserved signature indels (CSIs) have been identified through genomic analyses as exclusive for this genus in the proteins GTP pyrophosphokinase family protein, lipoprotein signal peptidase II and Clp protease ClpP. These CSIs provide a novel means to distinguish "Evansella" from other "Bacillaceae" genera in molecular terms. Taxonomy. As of May 2021, there are a total of 5 species with validly  published names in the genus "Evansella". Various phylogenetic trees created based on concatenated sequences from various datasets of conserved proteins and 16S rRNA genome sequences revealed that members of "Evansella" form a monophyletic branch. This clade is also reflected in the branching pattern in the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB).