PONE-D-20-38549

Degradation of benzo[a]pyrene by the halophilic bacterium strain Staphylococcus haemoliticus, 10SBZ1A

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Nzila,

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,

Pankaj Kumar Arora

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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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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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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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: A halophilic BaP degradation strain was isolated, and its characteristics and a metabolic pathway of BaP was investigated and proposed. As the first report of a halophilic BaP degrading bacterial strain at salinity > 5% NaCl, this paper has some innovation. However, some details are still need to be addressed. Please follow the comments:

1. Abstract Line 42-43, Please carefully check the results of doubling time ‘2-10h’ and degradation rate ‘0.2 μmol/l’. It is inconsistent with the text.

2. Abstract Line 42-44, “The strain 10SBZ1A degraded BaP at a rate of 0.2 μmol/l per day” “The optimum conditions of growth were 37 ºC, 10% NaCl (w/v) and pH 7.” It’s better to change the order of the two sentences. It should be the degradation rate under optimum conditions.

3. Materials and methods Line 202-208, What’s the salinity of the soil sample? Please add the operation conditions of this experiment, including temperature, salinity, and pH.

4. Introduction Line 60-66, this part introduced the background of this study. I advise the authors to supply some references of benzo[a]pyrene as the main PAHs components existed in the produced water. In addition, some references are also needed to support the high salinity of PW, even up to 30% NaCl.

Reviewer #2: Comments:

1. Delete the word "the" from the title and there should be "bacterial" in place of "bacterium".

2. The end of the sentence is incomplete "and among them, Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP)" at Line No. 34-35. Rewrite.

3. Cite the following reference at the end of the sentenece "The biodegradation of HMW-PAHs is challenging........difficult it is to degrade": Arora (2020), doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2020.570307

4. Delete "also" from the sentence at Line no. 35.

5. Rephrase the sentence " that can reach up to 30% NaCl" at Lie No. 35-36.

6. There should be "organic contaminants" in place of "PAHs" at Line no. 75.

7. Mention the purity status of the followings: pyrene, anthracene, phenanthrene, naphthalene, phthalic

120 acid, salicylic acid, catechol; palmitic, oleic and stearic acids.

8. Write the model, make and country of origin for GC at Line No. 208.

9. Why the chromatograms of liquid chromatography-high resolution tandem mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and HPLC is not included in the main text. Include all these chromatogram and supporting information in the main text of the manuscript.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-20-38549R1

Degradation of benzo[a]pyrene by halophilic bacterial strain Staphylococcus haemoliticus, 10SBZ1A

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Nzila,

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.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Mar 25 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Pankaj Kumar Arora

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Whole manuscript should be edited for grammatical and English languages. Some examples are:

1. There are two full-stop line number 44.

2. Line 33, produced water is not scientific term. Use petroleum waste effluent or something else in whole manuscript.

3. use word " Strain before 10SBZ1A in whole manuscript.

4. Line 258- Bacterial DNA was isolated and purified.

5. Check other errors.

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Degradation of benzo[a]pyrene by halophilic bacterial strain Staphylococcus haemoliticus strain 10SBZ1A

PONE-D-20-38549R2

Dear Dr. Nzila,

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.

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Kind regards,

Pankaj Kumar Arora

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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