PONE-D-20-04660

Tree bark scrape fungus: A potential source of laccase for application in bioremediation of non-textile dyes

PLOS ONE

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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

Reviewer #3: 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: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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: 1) Introduction Line 55-56 - Expanded forms of BOD and COD are missing

2) Introduction part needs to be concise

3) Materials and Methods - Line 156- Expanded forms of DEAE is missing

4) Line 119-120 - Furthermore, micromole cation as follows [29] and line 121-128 are unnecessary as authors

have already quoted the reference for methodology

5) Line 146-147 - instead of writing chemical formulas, chemical names should be given

6) Full form of SDS-PAGE should be written

7) - Line 195 Expanded forms of EDTA is missing

8) Line 212-213 - Text pertaining to calculation of immobilization efficiency be revised as "The immobilization

efficiency was calculated by comparing enzyme activity of free enzyme and immobilized enzyme

9) Line No. 214-218 and formula and details should be deleted

10) Reference No. 40. Fortina et al (1996) should b replaced with recent reference

Reviewer #2: This is in reference to the manuscript entitled, "Tree bark scrape fungus: A potential source of laccase for application in bioremediation of non-textile dyes (PONE-D-20-04660)". The authors have presented an interesting study concerning optimized production of laccase from high yielding tree bark scrape fungus. This is a very relevant work as it will provide comprehensive knowledge on production, purification and kinetics of laccase from Aspergillus fungus. The paper is well-organized and the writing was informative to deliver the message of the manuscript. The introduction delivers the actual idea of the paper. Material and Methods section is systematically exhibited and is technically sound. Results and discussion sections are adequately discussed. However, there are certain minor corrections which needs to be addressed.

I would recommend acceptance of the manuscript after minor revision.

Spacing errors should be checked throughout the manuscript.

Line 50: There should not be a comma between ‘oxidase’ and ‘has’.

Lines 116-118: The valency states of the chemicals should be written in subscript.

Line 341: Change the valency states into superscript form.

Line 382: Strike out the extra ‘production’ from the sentence.

Line 411: There should be no comma between ‘column chromatography’ and ‘was’.

Authors guidelines of the journal should be followed.

Reviewer #3: This is a clean scientific paper with good results. It would have been great to see a comparative assessment of the current enzyme activity levels against other new or isolated strains for this Genera. Also, more clear on the next steps from this research example...will you go into Bioprocess optimization or try to develop a GMO to boost expression. Also, what is commercial potential of your current work specifically at what Technology Readiness Level (TRL) do you think this work is at.

Overall the objects of the work has been met and presented adequately in this paper.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Dilfuza P Jabborova

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes: Santosh Ramchuran

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Tree bark scrape fungus: A potential source of laccase for application in bioremediation of non-textile dyes

PONE-D-20-04660R1

Dear Dr. Sayyed,

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,

Pradeep Kumar

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

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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: All queries have been attended.

Abbreviations have been expanded

old references replaced by recent ones

Reviewer #2: The authors have incorporated all the comments. This manuscript is technically sound and is an important piece of work. The statistics applied to the data are satisfactory. Hence, the article should be considered for publication.

Reviewer #3: All comments raised during the initial review has been fully addressed by the Authors and has been accepted by the me the reviewer

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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: Dilfuza P Jabborova

Reviewer #2: Yes: ZEBA USMANI

Reviewer #3: Yes: Santosh Ramchuran