About the Authors

James R. White

Affiliation Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center, Dania Beach, Florida, United States of America

Jignasa Patel

Affiliation Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center, Dania Beach, Florida, United States of America

Andrea Ottesen

Affiliation Food and Drug Administration Office of Regulatory Science, Division of Microbiology, College Park, Maryland, United States of America

Gabriela Arce

Affiliation Food and Drug Administration Office of Regulatory Science, Division of Microbiology, College Park, Maryland, United States of America

Patricia Blackwelder

Affiliations Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center, Dania Beach, Florida, United States of America, University of Miami Center for Advanced Microscopy and Marine Geology and Geophysics, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America

Jose V. Lopez

joslo@nova.edu

Affiliation Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center, Dania Beach, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JVL JP JRW. Performed the experiments: JRW JP GA AO. Analyzed the data: JRW JVL JP PB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JVL AO. Wrote the paper: JRW JVL JP PB AO.