About the Authors

Victor G. Stepanov

Affiliation Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Madhan R. Tirumalai

Affiliation Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Saied Montazari

Affiliation Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Aleksandra Checinska

Affiliation Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America

Kasthuri Venkateswaran

Affiliation Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America

George E. Fox

fox@uh.edu

Affiliation Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: VS GF KV. Performed the experiments: VS AC. Analyzed the data: MT VS SM AC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AC KV. Wrote the paper: VS GF KV MT AC SM.