PONE-D-19-26966

Resistance Associated Metabolite Profiling of Aspergillus Leaf Spot in Cotton through Non-targeted Metabolomics

PLOS ONE

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PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Thank you for submitting your manuscript. It was reviewed by two reviewers, one focusing on your metabolomics work while the other focusing on the cotton genotypes you have selected for the work. There are serious doubts raised on the basis of selection of genotypes. Please justify the selection of genotypes with suitable evidence and answer all questions. These are essential before we could take a final decision on the suitability of your paper for publication.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

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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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The manuscript “Resistance Associated Metabolite Profiling of Aspergillus Leaf Spot in Cotton through Non-targeted Metabolomics” described that the numerous metabolites, identified through ultra high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS), are changed in response to the A. tubingensis infection in cotton. It will contribute to a better understanding of the resistant mechanism in both cultivars.

The data is solid and suitable for publication in “PloS One” after a minor revision. Meanwhile, the whole manuscript should be further polished. Introduction should illustrate in-depth background of the manuscript. In discussion section, focus should be on the discussion of the results rather than reference’s accumulation. There are some grammatical and formatting mistakes. Below some minor suggestions are listed:

Line 18. The “and abiotic” should be deleted.

Line 19. The “behavior” is more relevant term to animals, rather than plants.

Line 36. The level is same or different?

Line 39. Full stop should be added at the end of the sentence.

Line 45-53. The authors should focus more on Leaf spot of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and Aspergillus tubingensis rather than other pathogens of cotton.

Line 69-70. Is this sentence in close relationship with the context?

Line 98-100. The description is unclear, should be explained in a bit detail.

Line 194-200 and Fig. 1 and 2. There are four treatment groups, including RT, RM, SM and ST. The authors have mentioned just two groups in Fig. 1 and 2. They should also include the other two groups. Meanwhile, the leaf spot area in susceptible and resistant varieties is much larger than 5 fold in Fig. 1, while in Fig. 2 it is shown about 5 fold. The ratio in both figures does not match.

Line 337. Reference [23] should be replaced with “Levi et al.” or the sentence should be rephrased and the reference should be placed at the end of the sentence.

Line 382. “are said to” is very colloquial, so rephrase the sentence.

Reviewer #2: The research seems to be original but of not of very practical use. There is no literature available on the incidence and the losses caused due to A. tubigensis anywhere on cotton crop.: There is no information about the pathogen and identification/registration. There is no detail available wrt purity of seed and the authorized source. Methodology followed for the experimentation and inoculation is not clear; There is no reference for resistant (Sadori) and susceptible variety (CIM 88 573). How and on what basis these were selected before conducting the experiment on Gossypium hirsutum. There are no clear cut details and or references about disease symptoms, ratting and AUDPC estimation.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Comments PLOS.doc

Resistance Associated Metabolite Profiling of Aspergillus Leaf Spot in Cotton through Non-targeted Metabolomics

PONE-D-19-26966R1

Dear Dr. Munis,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you will receive an e-mail containing information on the amendments required prior to publication. When all required modifications have been addressed, you will receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will proceed to our production department and be scheduled for publication.

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With kind regards,

Kandasamy Ulaganathan

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: In this version, the authors revised carefully according to the suggestions. The quality of this manuscript is significantly improved. Now, it meets the requirement of publication. Thus, I recommend it is accepted for publication.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: Yes: Hongmei Cheng