About the Authors

Hatice Bilgic

Affiliations Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey, Biotechnology Program, Middle East Technical University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey

Erdogan E. Hakki

Affiliation Department of Soil Sciences and Plant Nutrition, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey

Anamika Pandey

Contributed equally to this work with: Anamika Pandey, Mohd. Kamran Khan

Affiliations Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey, Department of Soil Sciences and Plant Nutrition, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey

Mohd. Kamran Khan

Contributed equally to this work with: Anamika Pandey, Mohd. Kamran Khan

Affiliations Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey, Department of Soil Sciences and Plant Nutrition, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey

Mahinur S. Akkaya

akkayams@metu.edu.tr

Affiliations Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey, Biotechnology Program, Middle East Technical University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MSA HB. Performed the experiments: HB. Analyzed the data: MSA HB AP MKK. Wrote the paper: MSA AP MKK EEH.