About the Authors

Ameya A. Mashruwala

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America

Shiven Bhatt

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America

Saroj Poudel

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Eric S. Boyd

Affiliations Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America, NASA Astrobiology Institute, Mountain View, California, United States of America

Jeffrey M. Boyd

jmboyd@AESOP.Rutgers.edu

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AAM ESB JMB. Performed the experiments: AAM SB SP JMB. Analyzed the data: AAM SB SP ESB JMB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AAM ESB JMB. Wrote the paper: AAM SP ESB JMB.