About the Authors

Ryoma Nakao

ryoma73@nih.go.jp

Affiliation Department of Bacteriology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

Kenji Kikushima

Affiliation Department of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Hideo Higuchi

Affiliation Department of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Nozomu Obana

Affiliation Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Nobuhiko Nomura

Affiliation Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Dongying Bai

Affiliation Department of Gerodontology, Graduate school of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan

Makoto Ohnishi

Affiliation Department of Bacteriology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

Hidenobu Senpuku

Affiliation Department of Bacteriology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RN KK HH MO HS. Performed the experiments: RN KK NO DB. Analyzed the data: RN KK NO. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RN HH NN HS. Wrote the paper: RN KK.