About the Authors

Jian Zhao

Affiliations Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America, Plant Biology Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma, United States of America

Cunxi Wang

Current address: Monsanto Company, St Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America

Mohamed Bedair

Affiliation Plant Biology Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma, United States of America

Ruth Welti

Affiliation Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America

Lloyd W. Sumner

Affiliation Plant Biology Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma, United States of America

Ivan Baxter

Affiliations USDA-ARS Plant Genetics Research Unit, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America, Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Xuemin Wang

wangxue@umsl.edu

Affiliations Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America, Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America, Department of Biology, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: XW. Performed the experiments: JZ CW MB IB. Analyzed the data: JZ CW MB IB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RW LWS IB. Wrote the paper: JZ XW.