About the Authors

Maud M. Swanson

Contributed equally to this work with: Maud M. Swanson, Brian Reavy

Affiliation The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, United Kingdom

Brian Reavy

Contributed equally to this work with: Maud M. Swanson, Brian Reavy

Brian.Reavy@hutton.ac.uk

Affiliation The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, United Kingdom

Kira S. Makarova

Affiliation National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Peter J. Cock

Affiliation The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, United Kingdom

David W. Hopkins

Current address: School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Affiliation The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, United Kingdom

Lesley Torrance

Affiliation The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, United Kingdom

Eugene V. Koonin

Affiliation National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Michael Taliansky

Affiliation The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MMS BR DWH LT EVK MT. Performed the experiments: MMS BR. Analyzed the data: MMS BE KSM PJC EVK. Wrote the paper: MMS BR KSM PJC DWH LT EVK MT.