About the Authors

Hela Azaiez

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Amanda R. Decker

Contributed equally to this work with: Amanda R. Decker, Kevin T. Booth, Allen C. Simpson

Affiliation Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Kevin T. Booth

Contributed equally to this work with: Amanda R. Decker, Kevin T. Booth, Allen C. Simpson

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Allen C. Simpson

Contributed equally to this work with: Amanda R. Decker, Kevin T. Booth, Allen C. Simpson

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

A. Eliot Shearer

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Patrick L. M. Huygen

Affiliation Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Fengxiao Bu

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Michael S. Hildebrand

Affiliation Austin Health, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Paul T. Ranum

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Seiji B. Shibata

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Ann Turner

Affiliation Self-employed physician, Menlo Park, California, United States of America

Yuzhou Zhang

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

William J. Kimberling

Affiliation Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Robert A. Cornell

Affiliation Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Richard J. H. Smith

richard-smith@uiowa.edu

Affiliations Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratories, Department of Otolaryngology University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America, Interdepartmental PhD Program in Genetics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HA ARD RAC RJHS. Performed the experiments: HA ARD KTB ACS AES FB MSH PTR SBS. Analyzed the data: HA ARD KTB ACS PLMH YZ RJHS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AT WJK. Wrote the paper: HA RJHS.