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62. Toledano MB, Kumar C, Le Moan N, Spector D, Tacnet F: The system biology of thiol redox system in Escherichia coli and yeast: differential functions in oxidative stress, iron metabolism and DNA synthesis. FEBS Lett 2007,581(19):3598–3607.PubMedCrossRef 63. Park S, Imlay JA: High levels of intracellular cysteine promote oxidative DNA damage by driving the fenton reaction. J Bacteriol 2003,185(6):1942–1950.PubMedCrossRef Authors’ contributions BD, KO, TS and IMV conceived and designed the experiments. GA, EH and MM performed the experiments. MM, BD, KO, TS and IMV analyzed the data. BD, TS and IMV selleck inhibitor wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background

Regarded as harmless to humans, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is used worldwide as a commercial biopesticide for the pest control of insects. It is typically used in large spray campaigns on open fields or indoor in green houses [1]. The insecticidal effect is largely due to the characteristic ability to produce specific insect toxins from crystal toxin genes mostly harboured on large plasmids [2]. Bt is a Gram positive, Glycogen branching enzyme endospore-forming bacterium closely related to the opportunistic human pathogen Bacillus cereus [3]. Commercial Bt strains have been isolated from human faecal samples and nasal lavage cultures and elevated human IgE antibody levels have been reported after occupational exposure [4–6]. Most epidemiological and occupational studies on biopesticides have focused on immune responses, infection, food poisoning or other gastro-intestinal symptoms [4, 7–9]. The possible long-term effects after repeated pulmonary exposure in humans working with Bt biopesticides have not yet been investigated, although the endospore sizes (1-2 μm in diameter) are within inhalable sizes for humans and mice [10, 11].