About the Authors

Heping Yang

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

heping.yang@monsanto.com

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Youlin Qi

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Mike E. Goley

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Jintai Huang

Roles Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Sergey Ivashuta

Roles Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Yuanji Zhang

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Oscar C. Sparks

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Jiyan Ma

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Brook M. van Scoyoc

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Amy L. Caruano-Yzermans

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Jennifer King-Sitzes

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Xin Li

Roles Formal analysis

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Aihong Pan

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Martin A. Stoecker

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

B. Elizabeth Wiggins

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Marguerite J. Varagona

Roles Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Competing Interests

This work was part of the research and development programs of Monsanto Company. All of the authors were employees of Monsanto while engaged in the research project described in this publication. Monsanto has filed patent applications related to the results of this work: “Methods and compositions for selective regulation of protein expression” (15/210,725); “Maize event MON 87429 and methods of use thereof” (62/625,537). This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.