PONE-D-20-41108

Elucidation of native California Agave americana and Agave deserti biofuel potential: compositional analysis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Wyman,

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 note that one of the reviewers made several valuable suggestions and raised some questions that you should address before your manuscript can be accepted for publication. I would kindly recommend you to also address the concern made by reviewer #2 regarding technical/biological replicates.

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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

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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

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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: Comments to the authors (PONE-D-20-41108). The manuscript by Lu and Wyman reports detailed compositional analysis of two promising but understudied Agave species (deserti and americana) which due to their drought tolerance capabilities including biomass high productivity makes it attractive as another promising bioenergy feedstock.

In my consideration, the study was well-performed, conclusions are sustained by research data and in general, the study is relevant for the Plos One journal.

Nevertheless, this manuscript needs clarification and improvements and clarification in order to be considered for publication in the following sections.

+General comments:

*Which is the land feasible for Agave cultivation and/or arid/semi-arid land in California?

*Provide an example of the species with this low biomass productivity (Page 10, line 52).

*The A. deserti sample must include the approximate cultivation age in the methods section, as an older sample would definitely have different characteristics that a younger sample.

*It is not appropriate to compare the composition of bagasse vs. leaves as it has different components. There are a few published papers that report the lignin content of Agave americana bagasse (i.e. Yang et al., 2012. Bioresource Technology, 126, 336) for your consideration.

*The compositional analysis of the bagasses in Table 1, are in dry basis? If the composition sums 86-88% then what comprises the rest (protein? wax?)?

*One issue is that this Agave americana bagasse is different from the one reported elsewhere, where they are cooked for Mezcal production where typically plants aged 7-8 years are used.

*Figure 1 is missing (Page 12, line 110).

*It is suggested to include a flowchart of the compositional analysis methods employed.

In brief, the current form of this manuscript cannot be accepted, but the authors are encouraged to perform modifications based on the above comments to modify their manuscript and submit a revised manuscript.

Reviewer #2: Very interesting comparative analysis of the biomass properties of wild (A. deserti) versus cultivated (A. americana). Methods seem appropriate and are adequately explained. Results indicate that Agave varieties such as A. deserti have the potential to contribute genetic factors to improve Agave breeding for biomass quantity/quality. My only major concern is with regard to the number of individual plants assayed (1 each, as far as I can tell). Statical analysis was presented as standard error therefore represent technical error (not biological replicates) by my estimation. It would be better have analysed samples from multiple individual plants (biological replicates) to better evaluate natural variation among ecotypes. Nonetheless, the conclusions were within reason and are generally supported by their data.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Elucidation of native California Agave americana and Agave deserti biofuel potential: Compositional analysis

PONE-D-20-41108R1

Dear Dr. Wyman,

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.

One important suggestion has been made by reviewer #2. As your manuscript is presented as a 'case-study', the reviewer suggests the addition of a short (1-sentence) statement acknowledging this somewhere in your conclusions.

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,

Igor Cesarino, Ph.D

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

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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

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: N/A

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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

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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

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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: The authors have already answered appropriately all comments made by this reviewer, hence, it can be considered for publication.

Reviewer #2: As this manuscript is being presented essentially as a 'case-study', my previous concerns have generally been addressed. I agree...further analyses using multiple biological replicates will be necessary, but are indeed outside of the scope of this manuscript. A statement in the conclusion indicating such would be appreciated.

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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: Jose A Perez-Pimienta

Reviewer #2: No