About the Authors

Michael E. Scharf

mscharf@purdue.edu

Current address: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America

Affiliation Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Zachary J. Karl

Current address: Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America

Affiliation Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Amit Sethi

Affiliation Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America

Drion G. Boucias

Affiliation Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: This study was partly funded by The Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research Inc. The authors have the following pending US patent application: 61/168,275 International patent application WO 2010/117843 A2. There are no further products in development or marketed products to declare. Chesapeake-PERL Inc. played a role in recombinant protein production, preparation, and purification. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MES ZJK DGB. Performed the experiments: MES ZJK AS. Analyzed the data: MES ZJK. Wrote the paper: MES ZJK DGB.