About the Authors

Shan Wang

Affiliation Key Lab for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China

Shuo Yang

Affiliation Key Lab for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China

Baiyi An

Affiliation Key Lab for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China

Shichen Wang

Affiliation Biotechnology Research Centre, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, China

Yuejia Yin

Affiliation Biotechnology Research Centre, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, China

Yang Lu

Affiliation Key Lab for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China

Ying Xu

Affiliations Computational Systems Biology Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America, College of Computer Science and Technology, Jilin University, Changchun, China

Dongyun Hao

dyhao@cjaas.com

Affiliations Biotechnology Research Centre, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, China, Key Lab for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Initiated the original idea of this study based on many years of his own research on nicotine demethylation in tobacco: DH. Supervised Shichen Wang, who was a postgraduate, to conduct all research from every calculation, preparation of the manuscript through every revision: DH. Provided exclusive financial support for this study: DH. Sole performer of this study from initial data collection, specific technique application through preparation of the first version of manuscript: Shan Wang. Assisted homology modeling of the enzyme structures and MD simulation: Shichen Wang. Collaborated with DH: YX. Supervised Shichen Wang, while Shichen Wang was in his lab for collaborative study: YX. Offered constructive suggestion in preparation of the first version of the manuscript and some of the revision work: YX. Contributed some invaluable discussion in making this manuscript complete: YX. Team members in DH's group and involved in this research project over the last two years: SY BA YY YL. Contributed to the data collection and helped to set up soft- and hardware that was used in this study: SY BA YY YL. Offered important discussion throughout this study and preparation of some figures and tables: SY BA YY YL.