About the Authors

Saori Yoneda

Affiliation Department of Oral Medical Science, Ohu University, Fukushima, Japan

Brandon Loeser

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Joseph Feng

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

John Dmytryk

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Fengxia Qi

Affiliations Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America, Division of Oral Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Justin Merritt

justin-merritt@ouhsc.edu

Affiliations Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America, Division of Oral Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Competing Interests

Author Justin Merritt is currently serving as an Academic Editor at PLOS ONE. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE Editorial policies and criteria. The authors declare that there are no competing interests in this study.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SY JM. Performed the experiments: SY BL. Analyzed the data: SY BL FQ JM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JF JD. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: FQ JM. None.