About the Authors

Partha Ray

drray@vt.edu

Affiliation Department of Dairy Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Katharine F. Knowlton

Affiliation Department of Dairy Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Chao Shang

Affiliation Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Kang Xia

Affiliation Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KFK PR KX CS. Performed the experiments: PR. Analyzed the data: PR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KFK KX. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: PR KFK KX CS.