About the Authors

Alex E. Pozhitkov

Affiliations Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionsbiologie, Plön, Germany, Department of Periodontics, School of Dentistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Peter A. Noble

Affiliations Department of Periodontics, School of Dentistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Ph.D Microbiology Program, Department of Biological Sciences, Alabama State University, Montgomery, Alabama, United States of America

Jarosław Bryk

Affiliations Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionsbiologie, Plön, Germany, National Centre for Biotechnology Education, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

Diethard Tautz

tautz@evolbio.mpg.de

Affiliation Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionsbiologie, Plön, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AP DT. Performed the experiments: AP JB. Analyzed the data: AP PAN DT. Wrote the paper: AP PAN DT.