About the Authors

Francesca Luca

Current address: Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

Giuseppina Bubba

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

Massimo Basile

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

Radim Brdicka

Affiliation Institute for Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic

Emmanuel Michalodimitrakis

Affiliation Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Heraklion, Greece

Olga Rickards

Affiliation Department of Biology, University “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

Galina Vershubsky

Affiliations Arct. An. C Innovative Laboratory, Moscow, Russia, Institute of Developmental Physiology, Russian Academy of Education, Moscow, Russia

Lluis Quintana-Murci

Affiliation UP Human Evolutionary Genetics, CNRS-URA3012, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Andrey I. Kozlov

Affiliation Arct. An. C Innovative Laboratory, Moscow, Russia

Andrea Novelletto

novelletto@bio.uniroma2.it

Affiliations Department of Cell Biology, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy, Department of Biology, University “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: FL LQM AK AN. Performed the experiments: FL GB. Analyzed the data: FL MB AN. Wrote the paper: FL RB EM OR GV LQM AK AN. Senior author: AK. Collected DNA samples and nutritional information: AK GV OR EM RB AN.