About the Authors

Alexander Mellmann

Contributed equally to this work with: Alexander Mellmann, Dag Harmsen, Craig A. Cummings

Affiliation Institute of Hygiene, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Dag Harmsen

Contributed equally to this work with: Alexander Mellmann, Dag Harmsen, Craig A. Cummings

dharmsen@uni-muenster.de

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Craig A. Cummings

Contributed equally to this work with: Alexander Mellmann, Dag Harmsen, Craig A. Cummings

Affiliation Life Technologies, Foster City, California, United States of America

Emily B. Zentz

Affiliation OpGen, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America

Shana R. Leopold

Affiliation Institute of Hygiene, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Alain Rico

Affiliation Life Technologies, Darmstadt, Germany

Karola Prior

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Rafael Szczepanowski

Affiliation Department of Periodontology, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Yongmei Ji

Affiliation Life Technologies, Foster City, California, United States of America

Wenlan Zhang

Affiliation Institute of Hygiene, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Stephen F. McLaughlin

Affiliation Life Technologies, Foster City, California, United States of America

John K. Henkhaus

Affiliation OpGen, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America

Benjamin Leopold

Affiliation Institute of Hygiene, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Martina Bielaszewska

Affiliation Institute of Hygiene, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Rita Prager

Affiliation Robert Koch Institute, Wernigerode Branch, Wernigerode, Germany

Pius M. Brzoska

Affiliation Life Technologies, Foster City, California, United States of America

Richard L. Moore

Affiliation OpGen, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America

Simone Guenther

Affiliation Life Technologies, Darmstadt, Germany

Jonathan M. Rothberg

Affiliation Ion Torrent by Life Technologies, Guilford, Connecticut, United States of America

Helge Karch

Affiliation Institute of Hygiene, University Münster, Münster, Germany

Competing Interests

Dr. Cummings, Mr. Rico, Dr. Ji, Mr. McLaughlin, Dr. Broska, Dr. Guenther, and Dr. Rothberg are all employees of Life Technologies, Inc. Ms. Zentz, Mr. Henkhaus, and Dr. Moore are all employees of OpGen, Inc. Dr. Harmsen is a part-time employee of the RIDOM Bioinformatics company. While these authors are company employees, this does not alter their adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. All other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AM DH CAC SG JMR HK. Performed the Ion Torrent sequencing: DH KP RS WZ AR SG. Performed Optical Mapping: EBZ JKH RLM. Performed genome assembly: CAC YJ SFM PMB. Performed phylogenetic analysis: AM DH SL BL. Performed and analyzed plasmid profiling: MB RP. First draft of manuscript: AM DH CAC. Approved the final version of the manuscript: AM DH CAC EBZ SRL AR KP RS YJ WZ SFM JKH BL MB RP PMB RLM SG JMR HK.