About the Authors

Honglei Ding

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Siqi Gong

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Yingxin Tian

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Zhangsheng Yang

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Robert Brunham

Affiliation BC Centre for Disease Control, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Guangming Zhong

* Email: Zhongg@UTHSCSA.EDU

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RB GZ. Performed the experiments: HD SG YT ZY. Analyzed the data: SG RB GZ. Wrote the manuscript: SG RB GZ.