About the Authors

Melania D’Orazio

Affiliation Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico San Raffaele Pisana, Roma, Italy

Francesca Pacello

Affiliation Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy

Andrea Battistoni

andrea.battistoni@uniroma2.it

Affiliation Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy

Competing Interests

This study was partly supported by Studio Palladio 2000. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AB MD FP. Performed the experiments: MD FP. Analyzed the data: AB MD FP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AB. Wrote the paper: AB MD FP.