PONE-D-19-36030

Exogenous Diethyl Aminoethyl Hexanoate Ameliorates Low Temperature Stress by Improving Nitrogen Metabolism in Maize Seedlings

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Wang,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

ACADEMIC EDITOR: After careful evaluation by myself and comments of the worthy reviewers, I recommend a major revision in the current draft of ms, particularly regarding data presentation and description.

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Kind regards,

Saddam Hussain

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

After careful evaluation by myself and comments of the worthy reviewers, I recommend a major revision in the current draft of ms, particularly regarding data presentation and description.

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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

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: 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

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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

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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: General comment:

Spring maize was vulnerable to low temperatures during sowing time in Northeast China. The effects of 6-DA on N metabolism and photosynthesis in maize at low temperature were studied, and the test indices were abundant (from root to leaf). The application of 6-DA has important practical significance to address LT on spring maize. Too many Figures and tables was a problem in this article, some test indices seem to be able to be removed. Hence, we recommended this paper to publish in PLOS One after minor revision.

Specific comment:

(1) Abstract:

Line 26-27, ‘DA-6 regulates many aspects… are unknown.’ This sentence is not good, spring maize sowing time meet to the low temperature in northeast China, and the LT suppressed the N metabolism and Pn, further reduced the dry matter accumulation. DA-6 had the function of improving N metabolism, hence, we studied the effect of DA-6 on maize in low temperature condition.

(2) Introduction:

Line 49-50, the frequency of low temperature occurrence during the sowing period of spring maize was not detailed, and lacking meteorological data.

Line 59, the introduction of 6-DA is not detailed. As a growth regulator, what is its corresponding plant hormone and what are its physiological functions and action mechanisms.

(3) Materials and methods:

Line 122-127, the determination of APX is missing.

(4) Results:

Table 3 and Fig.1 can be merged, and the data of Table 3 should be added into Fig.1.

Line 276, APX is missing.

Line 327, NAD-GDH (C), NADH-GDH (D)

(5) Figures caption:

Fig 2-Fig 12, name of abscissa ‘Days after stress’ should be ‘Days after low temperature stress’

What’s the meaning of ‘b-d’ in the columns in Fig.2? Other Figures have the same problem.

The letters in the columns of Fig.7 (A) is wrong, need to revise.

Reviewer #2: Please find the point-wise comments and suggestions in the attached file and answer/address each one appropriately. The English language needs improvement throughout the manuscript for clarity of reading.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Review comment.docx

Attachment

Submitted filename: Comments-36030.docx

Exogenous Diethyl Aminoethyl Hexanoate Ameliorates Low Temperature Stress by Improving Nitrogen Metabolism in Maize Seedlings

PONE-D-19-36030R1

Dear Dr. Wang,

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,

Saddam Hussain

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Consider the following suggestions/changes

All the tables/figures should be self-explanatory. Avoid abbreviations in table title. Define all the abbreviations used in the table foot note.

The following paper might be helpful in discussion

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.00393

Conclusion should stand alone. At least avoid starting a sentence with an abbreviation.

L175 in not clear.

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

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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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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

**********

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

**********

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: I am satisfied with the revision, but L174-176 in revision not describe accurately about different lowercase.

Reviewer #2: Now the manuscript has been improved in the way suggested.

.

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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: Wang Yang Henan Agricultural University

Reviewer #2: No