About the Authors

Brintha Parasumanna Girinathan

Affiliation Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66502, United States of America

Sterling Braun

Current address: Kansas University Medical Center, Rainbow Blvd., Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America

Affiliation Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66502, United States of America

Apoorva Reddy Sirigireddy

Affiliation Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66502, United States of America

Jose Espinola Lopez

Affiliation Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66502, United States of America

Revathi Govind

rgovind@ksu.edu

Affiliation Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66502, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BPG RG. Performed the experiments: BPG SB ARS JEL RG. Analyzed the data: BPG RG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BPG ARS SB JEL. Wrote the paper: BPG RG. Conducted hamster experiments: BPG SB ARS RG. Constructed plasmids used in the study: BPG ARS JEL.