About the Authors

Frank Technow

Frank.Technow@pioneer.com

Affiliation Breeding Technologies, DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, USA

Carlos D. Messina

Affiliation Trait Characterization & Development, DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, USA

L. Radu Totir

Affiliation Breeding Technologies, DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, USA

Mark Cooper

Affiliation Trait Characterization & Development, DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, USA

Competing Interests

The authors are employed by DuPont Pioneer, which owns a pending unpublished patent application covering concepts disclosed in the manuscript. The authors have no financial interest in the patent application. Part of the authors’ employment responsibilities at DuPont Pioneer include developing systems and methods disclosed in the manuscript. The authors declare they are unaware of any competing interests. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: FT CDM LRT MC. Performed the experiments: FT. Analyzed the data: FT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: FT CDM LRT MC. Wrote the paper: FT CDM LRT MC.