About the Authors

Jon Lund Steffensen

Affiliation Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, United States of America

Keith Dufault-Thompson

Affiliation Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, United States of America

Ying Zhang

yingzhang@uri.edu

Affiliation Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YZ JLS. Performed the experiments: JLS KDT YZ. Analyzed the data: YZ JLS KDT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JLS KDT YZ. Wrote the paper: YZ JLS KDT. Designed the software: YZ JLS. Implemented software programs: JLS KDT.