About the Authors

Andreia N. Horácio

Affiliation Instituto de Microbiologia, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

Joana P. Lopes

Affiliation Instituto de Microbiologia, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

Mário Ramirez

ramirez@fm.ul.pt

Affiliation Instituto de Microbiologia, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

José Melo-Cristino

Affiliation Instituto de Microbiologia, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

for the Portuguese Group for the Study of Streptococcal Infections

Membership of the Portuguese Group for the Study of Streptococcal Infections is provided in the Acknowledgments.

Competing Interests

Dr. José Melo-Cristino has received research grants administered through his university and received honoraria for serving on the speakers bureaus of Pfizer, Bial, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis. Dr. Mário Ramirez has received honoraria for serving on the speakers bureau of Pfizer and for consulting for Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. The other authors declare no conflict of interest. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JM MR. Performed the experiments: ANH JPL TPGSS. Analyzed the data: JM MR ANH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TPGSS. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: JM MR ANH.