About the Authors

Vandana Saxena

Affiliation Department of Microbiology & Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Guorui Xie

Affiliation Department of Microbiology & Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Bei Li

Affiliation Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Tierra Farris

Affiliation Department of Microbiology & Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Thomas Welte

Affiliation Department of Microbiology & Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Bin Gong

Affiliation Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Paul Boor

Affiliation Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Ping Wu

Affiliation Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Shao-Jun Tang

Affiliation Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Robert Tesh

Affiliations Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America, Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America, Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Tian Wang

ti1wang@utmb.edu

Affiliations Department of Microbiology & Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America, Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America, Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: V. Saxena, S. Tang, T. Wang. Performed the experiments: V. Saxena, G. Xie, B. Li, T. Farris, T. Welte, B. Gong. Analyzed the data: V. Saxena, T. Farris, B. Gong, P. Boor, P. Wu, T. Wang. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: B. Gong, S. Tang, R. Tesh. Wrote the paper: V. Saxena, P. Wu, S. Tang, R. Tesh, T. Wang.