About the Authors

Jayesh J. Ahire

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, University of Stellenbosch, 7602 Matieland (Stellenbosch), South Africa

Melanie Hattingh

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, University of Stellenbosch, 7602 Matieland (Stellenbosch), South Africa

Deon P. Neveling

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, University of Stellenbosch, 7602 Matieland (Stellenbosch), South Africa

Leon M. T. Dicks

LMTD@sun.ac.za

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, University of Stellenbosch, 7602 Matieland (Stellenbosch), South Africa

Competing Interests

The commercial funding received does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JA MH DPN LMTD. Performed the experiments: JA MH DPN. Analyzed the data: JA MH DPN LMTD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JA MH DPN. Wrote the paper: JA MH DPN LMTD.