About the Authors

Ashutosh Kumar

Affiliation Pathogen Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

Mohammad Majid

Affiliation Pathogen Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

Ralph Kunisch

Affiliation Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Pittu Sandhya Rani

Affiliation Pathogen Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

Insaf A. Qureshi

Affiliation Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

Astrid Lewin

Affiliation Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Seyed E. Hasnain

Affiliations School of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India, Institute of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, India, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Niyaz Ahmed

ahmed.nizi@gmail.com

Affiliations Pathogen Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following conflicts: Niyaz Ahmed is a Section Editor of PLoS ONE. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: NA. Performed the experiments: AK MM RK IAQ PSR. Analyzed the data: NA AK AL SEH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AL SEH IAQ. Wrote the paper: NA AK AL.