About the Authors

Shawkat Ali

Current address: Center for Desert Agriculture Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Affiliations Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre, Summerland, British Columbia, Canada, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

John D. Laurie

Current address: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Center for Plant Science Innovation, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States of America

Affiliations Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre, Summerland, British Columbia, Canada, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Rob Linning

Affiliation Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre, Summerland, British Columbia, Canada

José Antonio Cervantes-Chávez

Current address: Unidad de Microbiología Básica y Aplicada, Campus Aeropuerto, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Querétaro, México

Affiliation Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre, Summerland, British Columbia, Canada

Denis Gaudet

Affiliation Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Guus Bakkeren

guus.bakkeren@agr.gc.ca

Affiliation Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre, Summerland, British Columbia, Canada

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SA JDL DG GB. Performed the experiments: SA JDL RL DG GB. Analyzed the data: SA JDL RL DG GB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JAC. Wrote the paper: SA GB. Edited the manuscript: SA JDL RL JAC DG GB.