About the Authors

Weidong Xu

Affiliation Department of Biological Science and Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America

Douglas M. Watts

Affiliation Department of Biological Science and Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America

Margaret C. Costanzo

Affiliation Department of Biological Science and Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America

Xiaolei Tang

Affiliation Department of Biological Science and Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America

Leon A. Venegas

Affiliation Department of Biological Science and Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America

Feng Jiao

Affiliation Department of Biological Science and Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America

Alessandro Sette

Affiliation Center for Infectious Disease, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, California, United States of America

John Sidney

Affiliation Center for Infectious Disease, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Andrew K. Sewell

Affiliation Institute of Infection and Immunity, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Linda Wooldridge

Affiliation Institute of Infection and Immunity, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Shinji Makino

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

John C. Morrill

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Clarence J. Peters

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

June Kan-Mitchell

jkanmitchell@utep.edu

Affiliation Department of Biological Science and Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

Co-author Dr. Douglas M. Watts is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The authors have also reviewed the authors’ declaration of potential competing interests for the re-submission according to PLOS ONE policy. All authors declared no competing interests.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JK-M WX DMW MCC XT. Performed the experiments: WX MCC DMW LAV XT FJ JS. Analyzed the data: WX MCC DMW JCM XT JK-M. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JS AS SM JCM AKS LW CJP. Wrote the paper: WX MCC JK-M.