About the Authors

Saeid Latifi-Navid

Affiliations Department of Bacteriology and Virology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Tehran, Iran, Digestive Disease Research Center, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Seyed Ali Ghorashi

Contributed equally to this work with: Seyed Ali Ghorashi, Reza Malekzadeh, Daniel Falush

Affiliation Department of Bacteriology and Virology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Tehran, Iran

Farideh Siavoshi

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, School of Biology, College of Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Bodo Linz

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Sadegh Massarrat

Affiliation Digestive Disease Research Center, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Tanya Khegay

Affiliation Uzbek Academy of Sciences, Institute of Immunology, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Ali-Hatef Salmanian

Affiliation Department of Plant Molecular Biology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Tehran, Iran

Ali Akbar Shayesteh

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahwaz, Iran

Mohsen Masoodi

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease Research Center (GILDRC), Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Tropical and Infectious Disease Research Center, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar-Abbas, Iran

Koroush Ghanadi

Affiliation Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran

Azita Ganji

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS), Mashhad, Iran

Sebastian Suerbaum

Affiliation Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Krankenhaushygiene, Hannover, Germany

Mark Achtman

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Reza Malekzadeh

Contributed equally to this work with: Seyed Ali Ghorashi, Reza Malekzadeh, Daniel Falush

Affiliation Digestive Disease Research Center, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Daniel Falush

Contributed equally to this work with: Seyed Ali Ghorashi, Reza Malekzadeh, Daniel Falush

D.Falush@ucc.ie

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SAG FS SM MA RM DF. Performed the experiments: SLN BL TK AHS AAS MM KG AG. Analyzed the data: SLN. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SS. Wrote the paper: SLN DF.