Heyndrickxia

Heyndrickxia is a genus of gram-positive rod-shaped bacteria (except for Heyndrickxia sporothermodurans, which stains gram-negative) in the family Bacillaceae within the order Bacillales. The type species for this genus is Heyndrickxia oleronia.

Members of Heyndrickxia were originally assigned to the genus Bacillus. The polyphyletic nature and unclear evolutionary relationships of the genus Bacillus has long been a topic in the scientific community. It was composed of many unrelated species with a diverse range of biochemical characteristics due to the vague criteria (such as the ability to form endospores under aerobic conditions) used to assign species to this genus. Multiple phylogenetic studies and comparative genomic analyses have been conducted to clarify the taxonomy of genus, resulting in the restriction of Bacillus to only include species closely related to Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus cereus, and the establishment of many novel genera such as Virgibacillus, Solibacillus, Brevibacillus and Ectobacillus.  

The name Heyndrickxia was chosen to celebrate Professor Marc Heyndrickx (University of Gent) for his contributions to the field of microbiology and his research on Bacillus species.