Topic summary
Verotoxin
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Shiga toxin.
History
The toxin is named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who discovered S. dysenteriae in 1897. In 1977, researchers in Ottawa, Ontario discovered the Shiga toxin normally produced by Shigella dysenteriae in a line of E. coli. The E. coli version of the toxin was named "verotoxin" because of its ability to kill Vero cells (African green monkeykidney cells) in culture. Shortly after, the verotoxin was referred to as Shiga-like toxin because of its similarities to Shiga toxin.