About the Authors

Guoyun Bai

Affiliation Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Pawel Gajer

Affiliations Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Melissa Nandy

Affiliation Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Bing Ma

Affiliation Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Hongqiu Yang

Affiliation Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Joyce Sakamoto

Current address: Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, The Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Affiliations Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

May H. Blanchard

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Jacques Ravel

Affiliations Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Rebecca M. Brotman

rbrotman@som.umaryland.edu

Affiliations Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RMB JR GB MHB. Performed the experiments: GB HY JS MN. Analyzed the data: PG BM RMB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JR PG MHB. Wrote the paper: GB PG BM JR RMB.