PONE-D-20-00394

Efficacy of fluopyram applied by chemigation on controlling eggplant root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.)

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tang,

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.

Especially, I request you to focus on the following areas:

• The manuscript text needs extensive revision for English.
• The methodologies need more clarity in the descriptions. 
• The Discussion needs to be more focused with the currently generated data as well as addition of already published and relevant references.
• The authors may also add additional data (if already generated) as suggested by one of the reviewers. Particularly, the data on remained nematode density in the soil on root knot disease parameters like disease incidence and disease severity compared to control will be of much help.
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Kind regards,

Birinchi Sarma, PhD

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: Partly

Reviewer #4: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

Reviewer #3: I Don't Know

Reviewer #4: I Don't Know

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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

Reviewer #4: 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

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: 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: please follow instructions to author. Introduction is sufficient . Results and discussion are sufficient. but the titles of figures are not found above each figure. please correct the mistakes and comments present in the text.

Reviewer #2: This manuscript is “Efficacy of fluopyram applied by chemigation on controlling eggplant root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) and its effects on soil properties”.

The following are my comments and critique:

1. The manuscript title in text is different. “Efficacy of fluopyram applied by chemigation on controlling eggplant root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) and its effects on soil properties” or “Efficacy of fluopyram applied by chemigation on controlling eggplant root-knot-nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.)”

2. The manuscript needs to be edited for grammar and syntax.

3. The introduction is generally relevant but unsufficient information about the previous study findings for readers. Previous studies on fluopyram to control RKN should be given in introduction.

4. The methods are generally appropriate.

5. The results are clear.

6. In discussion, presented data should be compared with previous findings. Some information is general concept. For example last paragraph in discussion section.

Reviewer #3: The manuscript gives some interesting information on a new nematicide and its effect on root-knot nematodes and soil microbial community (the latter probably should be included in the title). There are several issues that need to be addressed if this manuscript is to be accepted. The paper is difficult to read and the authors need to have this manuscript checked for English. There has been several recent publications on this nematicide, including on chemigation, and the authors should at least include some of this work in their references. The experimental design is not clearly explained - not sure how many replications are there and the sampling procedure is confusing - would be good to include a figure / diagram to clarify the sampling methodology. Also, the Baermann funnel method used to extract nematodes (need to give the correct (=original) reference for this method) is typically used to collect active nematodes from soil, not sure why the authors used a probe (which probe?) to verify if nematodes were dead or alive (if nematodes were dead, it's probably because they died from lack of oxygen in the funnel neck because they were not tapped off soon enough). Overall, the methodology lacks detail and is difficult to read and understand. The data tables and figures are also very busy and again don't help the readability of the paper. It also seems like this is just a single field experiment - duplicating the trial would strengthen the data and make this more relevant.

Reviewer #4: Actually I expected from the author to test remained nematode density in the soil on root knot disease parameters like disease incidence and disease severity compared with control, and also its effect on plant growth & yield parameters like fresh and dry weight of each of root and vegetative systems , plant hight, fruit weight and size ..etc, but unfortunately I didn't find such data. Also it was better if the author take more than one duration to determine Fluopyram residues in order to know the trend of product degradation exactly instead of consider one duration (30 DAT) for the purpose.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: Yes: Dr. QAIS KADHIM ZEWAIN ALAZAWI

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-20-00394_reviewer-1 (1).pdf

Efficacy of fluopyram applied by chemigation on controlling eggplant root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.)and its effects on soil properties

PONE-D-20-00394R1

Dear Dr. Tang,

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

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Birinchi Sarma, PhD

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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #4: 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 #4: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

Reviewer #4: I Don't Know

**********

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 #4: 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

Reviewer #4: 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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #4: (No Response)

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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: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #4: Yes: Prof.Dr. Qais K. Zewain