About the Authors

Olga Pontes

Contributed equally to this work with: Olga Pontes, Alexa Vitins

opontes@unm.edu

Affiliations Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America, Biology Department, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Alexa Vitins

Contributed equally to this work with: Olga Pontes, Alexa Vitins

Current address: Laboratory for Health Protection Research, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands

Affiliation Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America

Thomas S. Ream

Current address: Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wiscosin, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America

Evelyn Hong

Affiliation Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America

Craig S. Pikaard

Affiliations Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America, Department of Biology and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America

Pedro Costa-Nunes

Affiliations Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America, Biology Department, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Competing Interests

OP, EH and PCN were supported by an Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation award and Monsanto Company. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: OP CSP. Performed the experiments: OP AV TR EH PC-N. Analyzed the data: OP AV TR EH PC-N CSP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: OP AV TR EH PC-N CSP. Wrote the paper: OP AV TR EH PC-N CSP.