About the Authors

Lei Han

Affiliation Research Institute of Forestry/Key Laboratory of Forest Cultivation, State Forestry Administration, Beijing, China

Yang Gao

Affiliation Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, United States of America

Deying Li

deying.li@ndsu.edu

Affiliation Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DL LH YG. Performed the experiments: DL LH YG. Analyzed the data: DL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DL LH. Wrote the paper: DL YG.