About the Authors

Ossie F. Dyson

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, United States of America

Lia R. Walker

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, United States of America

Adrian Whitehouse

Affiliation Faculty of Biological Sciences, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

Paul P. Cook

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, United States of America

Shaw M. Akula

akulas@ecu.edu

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SMA OFD. Performed the experiments: OFD LRW. Analyzed the data: OFD PPC SMA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AW SMA. Wrote the paper: OFD SMA.