About the Authors

Basha L. Stankovich

Affiliation School of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, California, United States of America

Esmeralda Aguayo

Affiliation School of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, California, United States of America

Fatima Barragan

Affiliation School of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, California, United States of America

Aniket Sharma

Affiliation School of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, California, United States of America

Maria G. Pallavicini

mpallavicini@pacific.edu

Affiliation School of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BLS MGP. Performed the experiments: BLS EA FB AS. Analyzed the data: BLS MGP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BLS MGP. Wrote the paper: BLS MGP.