Peer Review History

Original SubmissionSeptember 9, 2020
Decision Letter - Rashid Nazir, Editor

PONE-D-20-28447

Indole-3-acetic acid synthesized through the indole-3-pyruvate pathway promotes Candida tropicalis biofilm formation

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Miyagi,

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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Rashid Nazir

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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2. Please upload a copy of Figure 6, to which you refer in your text on page 19. If the figure is no longer to be included as part of the submission please remove all reference to it within the text.

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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: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: 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

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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

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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: In the manuscript entitled “Indole-3-acetic acid synthesized through the indole-3-pyruvate pathway Promotes Candida tropicalis biofilm formation”, Miyagi and coworkers discovered indole-3-acetic acid is a small signaling molecule, which can promote the biofilm formation of Candida tropicalis. This work is interesting but there are some issues needed to be addressed before accepted for publication.

1. In page 6 line 117. a space was missing in 2500g.

2. The authors should carefully check the units throughout the manuscript, for example, hours/h, minute/min. The format should be uniform.

3. Another format issues, for example, Five-hundred µL of the culture; 250 μL of mixed water:methanol:chloroform. Please use the arabic numerals throughout the manuscript.

4. In result section, in part 1 (page 13), the author identified 15 overexpression metabolites from 284 metabolites. But in part 2 (page 14), the author directly claimed that IAA promotes biofilm formation of C. tropicalis. I wonder the other 14 metabolites if possess the similar function? It is better to provide the corresponding evidence.

5. In page 24, Figure 4 caption, “0.3 x 107 cells/mL” “7” should be displayed in superscript.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Dongliang Yang

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Revision 1

Dear Dr. Nazir

We have revised our manuscript “Indole-3-acetic acid synthesized through the indole-3-pyruvate pathway promotes Candida tropicalis biofilm formation” by Miyagi et al. for consideration for publication in Plos One. We appreciate your invitation to resubmit the manuscript for another review. The reviewer’s suggestions/comments have improved the manuscript quality, and we appreciate the reviewer’s insight. The changes we have made are solely in the main text, and all the figures and tables remain the same. Fig. 6, which was not uploaded in the original submission, has been submitted. Below are our responses to the reviewer’s comments. We hope that the manuscript is now acceptable for publication in Plos One. We are looking forward to hearing your decision.

Responses to Reviewer 1:

Comment 1: In page 6 line 117. a space was missing in 2500g.

A space has been added.

Comment 2: The authors should carefully check the units throughout the manuscript, for example, hours/h, minute/min. The format should be uniform.

The units for hour and min have been changed to “h” and “min,” respectively. They are now uniformly used throughout the manuscript.

Comment 3: Another format issues, for example, Five-hundred µL of the culture; 250 μL of mixed water:methanol:chloroform. Please use the arabic numerals throughout the manuscript.

Arabic numerals are now used for all the numbers that are followed by a unit of measurement.

Comment 4: In result section, in part 1 (page 13), the author identified 15 overexpression metabolites from 284 metabolites. But in part 2 (page 14), the author directly claimed that IAA promotes biofilm formation of C. tropicalis. I wonder the other 14 metabolites if possess the similar function? It is better to provide the corresponding evidence.

We agree with the reviewer that it is interesting to investigate whether the other 14 metabolites affect the formation of biofilm. We chose IAA among 15 metabolites because it has been indicated to induce filamentation of certain fungi. We are currently investigating the other 14 metabolites. However, this manuscript is focused on IAA, and extending the study to other metabolites is beyond this report's scope.

Comment 5: In page 24, Figure 4 caption, “0.3 x 107 cells/mL” “7” should be displayed in superscript.

It has been corrected.

Sincerely,

Decision Letter - Rashid Nazir, Editor

Indole-3-acetic acid synthesized through the indole-3-pyruvate pathway promotes Candida tropicalis biofilm formation

PONE-D-20-28447R1

Dear Dr. Miyagi,

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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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Rashid Nazir

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: Partly

**********

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

**********

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: (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

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Rashid Nazir, Editor

PONE-D-20-28447R1

Indole-3-acetic acid synthesized through the indole-3-pyruvate pathway promotes Candida tropicalis biofilm formation

Dear Dr. Miyagi:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr Rashid Nazir

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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