About the Authors

Shenghua Li

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Paul Brazhnik

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Bruno Sobral

Affiliation Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

John J Tyson

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tyson@vt.edu

Affiliations Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America , Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

SL, PB, and JJT conceived, designed, and performed the research and wrote the paper. BS revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. PB, BS, and JJT obtained funding for this research.