Supernatants were removed from cell samples, and wells were rinsed twice with sterile saline. RNA was isolated from cell samples using the Isolate II RNA mini kit (Bioline, Australia). Genomic DNA (gDNA) was removed by treatment with DNase I (Sigma Aldrich), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The absence of contaminating gDNA was demonstrated by the absence of a product in wells using “no RT” control samples, which included all components of the cDNA synthesis reaction, except reverse transcriptase. The quality of RNA was assessed by spectrophotometry (NanoDrop One/Onec, Thermofisher Scientific). Ratios for all samples are reported in Additional file 2 Table S3.