1985 Volume 33 Issue 7 Pages 3059-3061
A Coryneform bacterium, isolated from the digestive gland of the Japanese ivory shell, Babylonia japonica, was shown to produce neosurugatoxin and prosurugatoxin, the causative toxins of a food poisoning outbreak in 1965 following ingestion of the shellfish. This is the first evidence that marine toxins may be produced by bacteria.