PONE-D-19-34824

Cell wall O-acetyl and methyl esterification patterns of leaves reflected in atmospheric emission signatures of acetic acid and methanol

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr Dewhirst,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. Your manuscript has been peer-reviewed by two experts in the field. As you can see from the comments reported below, both the reviewers found your study very interesting and worthy of publication following some revisions. In short, reviewer #1 asked to expand the ‘Introduction’ and ‘Discussion’ sections to describe more fully the importance of this research work, while reviewer #2 arose some points to be addressed, particularly a more correct presentation of the statistical analysis.

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Federico Brilli, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: I very much enjoyed this manuscript and have an unusual recommendation for the authors. I found the Intro and Disc sections well written but somewhat telegraphic. I'm concerned that the significance of the realists may not come across to the general reader. I encourage the authors to consider expanding these sections to discuss the importance of their work at greater length.

Also, I did not see the data link that, I believe, PLOS One requires. If I missed it, I apologize. If it's not yet in the ms., it should be added

Reviewer #2: The manuscript “Cell wall O-acetyl and methyl esterification patterns of leaves reflected in atmospheric emission signatures of acetic acid and methanol” regards to the quantification of total meOH and AA emissions in Populus trichocarpa desiccated leaves at different developmental stages were taking into account the cell wall acetylation and methylation content highlighting the quantification of AA/meOH emission ratios as a potential tool for rapid phenotype screening of structural carbohydrate esterification. I consider the manuscript very interesting and topical in the field of plant physiography and biofuels. Developing a method based on two experimental approaches, able to dynamically quantify acetic acid simultaneously with methanol is very innovative. I find the presentation of the work quite good and I don't find too many problems in the language. However, there are some aspects that need to be reviewed before the work can be presentable.

Comments:

1) The introduction should be reviewed trying to replace some slightly dated references (Micheli et al etc). The role of PME, pectin methylesterification and methanol release in defense against pathogens should be described a little more thoroughly. For references see papers of these authors Bethke, Lionetti, Dorokhov.

2) The sentence on page 5 lane 106 suggests that the AA is expected to shrink during development ... review

3) Should figures 2 in the abscissa axis be seconds or minutes?

4) The statistical treatment of the data is not correctly presented. The histograms are not accompanied by any statistical sign (letters for ANOVA, asterisks, etc.). It is also unclear how many repetitions have been made. Every figure must have adequate references in this regard.

5) Figure 6 is more to review. It must be moved to supplementary materials

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Cell wall O-acetyl and methyl esterification patterns of leaves reflected in atmospheric emission signatures of acetic acid and methanol

PONE-D-19-34824R1

Dear Dr. Dewhirst,

I am pleased to inform you that your revised manuscript has successfully addressed the reviewers' comments and it will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

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With kind regards,

Federico Brilli, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: