About the Authors

Shanshan Yang

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America

Rebecca L. Murphy

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America

Daryl T. Morishige

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America

Patricia E. Klein

Affiliation Department of Horticultural Sciences and Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America

William L. Rooney

Affiliation Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America

John E. Mullet

jmullet@neo.tamu.edu

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors declare that no competing interests exist. The research was funded in part by two commercial sources (Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Ceres Inc.). These commercial sources of funding, along with all other potential competing interests related to employment, consultancy, patents, products in development, marketed products, did not influence the conduct of this research and created no competing interests. The authors confirm that we will adhere to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SY JEM. Performed the experiments: SY RLM DTM. Analyzed the data: SY RLM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PEK WLR. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: SY DTM JEM.