About the Authors

YanYan Mao

Affiliations Department of Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America, Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, China

Simone Reiprich

Affiliation Institute for Biochemistry, University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

Michael Wegner

Affiliation Institute for Biochemistry, University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

Bernd Fritzsch

bernd-fritzsch@uiowa.edu

Affiliation Department of Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BF SR MW. Performed the experiments: YYM SR BF. Analyzed the data: YYM BF. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SR MW. Wrote the paper: YYM SR MW BF. Interacted with a statistician: BF. Interacted with a native English speaker: BF.