About the Authors

Wei-Chun Hung

Affiliation Division of Bacteriology, Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan

Tomomi Takano

Affiliation Division of Bacteriology, Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan

Wataru Higuchi

Affiliation Division of Bacteriology, Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan

Yasuhisa Iwao

Affiliation Division of Bacteriology, Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan

Olga Khokhlova

Affiliation Division of Bacteriology, Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan

Lee-Jene Teng

Affiliation Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

Tatsuo Yamamoto

tatsuoy@med.niigata-u.ac.jp

Affiliation Division of Bacteriology, Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TY WCH TT. Performed the experiments: TY HCH TT WH YI. Analyzed the data: TY HCH TT WH YI. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: WCH TT WH YI OK LJT TY. Wrote the paper: TY WCH.