About the Authors

Sadaf Hasan

Affiliation Medical Microbiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Interdisciplinary Biotechnology Unit, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

Mohd Danishuddin

Contributed equally to this work with: Mohd Danishuddin, Mohd Adil

Affiliation Medical Microbiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Interdisciplinary Biotechnology Unit, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

Mohd Adil

Contributed equally to this work with: Mohd Danishuddin, Mohd Adil

Affiliation Medical Microbiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Interdisciplinary Biotechnology Unit, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

Kunal Singh

Affiliation National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India

Praveen K. Verma

Affiliation National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, India

Asad U. Khan

asad.k@rediffmail.com

Affiliation Medical Microbiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Interdisciplinary Biotechnology Unit, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

Competing Interests

Co-author Asad U Khan is a PLoS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AUK. Performed the experiments: SH MD MA KS. Analyzed the data: AUK PKV. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AUK PKV. Wrote the paper: SH AUK.