PONE-D-21-25205Effects of growth promoting microorganisms on tomato seedlings in conditions of different growing mediaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Pokluda,

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 Nov 11 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: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Umakanta Sarker

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

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2. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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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: 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: Materials and methods are well defined and seems reproducible.

Consider modifying title as "Effects of growth promoting microorganisms on tomato seedlings growing in

different media conditions".

Introduction is too long, consider reducing it by 30% or three pages in total.

Likewise, discussion is too long, consider reducing it significantly and make it crisp.

Combine picture 1-4 as a new Figure and update figure numbers.

Reviewer #2: In this paper, the authors address a question of high interest for researchers studying the role of PGPM on tomato under different substrate conditions. The paper is correctly designed and carried out. Results are also consistent and very interesting. However, the current version must be revised at several points before it can be accepted. A list of the points to be addressed when revising the paper is provided below:

L35: Consider replacing “This review (Borelli et al., 2021)…” by “The review of Borelli et al. (2021)…”

L73: Replace “They” with “AMF”

L80-81: Consider re-writing the sentence in a different way. You can state that “Merrouche et al. (2017) have previously reported that…..’’

L119: Replace “little understood” by “poorly understood”

L120: Replace tomato’s scientific name with the updated one

L137: Is there any reference available which can support that easily degradable soil will be tolerated by plants when PGPM will be applied. Consider describing in more detail that PGPM can increase the tolerance of X number of soil stresses, so tomatoes will benefit from PGPM when cultivated under easily degradable soil.

L460-461: Please re-write the sentence in a more understandable way.

L573-574: As the referred element (Phosphorus) was referred at the previous page, consider refer again as P, and not as ‘this element’.

L629: Re-locate the words of the sentence to ‘both necessary and potentially toxic for plants’

L650: was your previous researched published? Can you provide the relevant reference?

L765-766: Can you provide reference for the sentence ‘Moreover, plants …deficit conditons’?

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6. 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: Yes: Panagiotis Kalozoumis

[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.

PONE-D-21-25205R1Effects of growth promoting microorganisms on tomato seedlings growing in different media conditionsPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Pokluda,

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:

The authors addressed all the comments raised by reviewers and both reviewers are accepted the MS. Now, the manuscript improved substantially. However, before its acceptance, the authors should address these issues again with minor revision.

-There are several missing spacing between numbers and °C, before and after the symbol “+” (numerous), and “±”, etc. throughout the whole MS including figure and Table values and captions.  Check carefully and addressed accordingly.

-Follow the citation style of PLOS one in the text and reference chapter.

Line 109: Change “120°C” to “120 °C”.

Line 190-191: Change “The DPPH scavenging activity against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH radical) was determined in plant samples.” to “The antioxidant activity was determined in plant samples following DPPH radical (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging method (add a reference here. the author may cite Doi.10.1038/s41598-021-91157-8).”.

Line 254: Table 2: Change “mMol” to “mM”.

-Discussion needs to be improved with the mechanistic explanation of the results citing relevant references.

Line 651: To explain the reason for enhanced polyphenol synthesis add the sentences at the end of the sentence “-----(Sharma et al., 2019).” “Abiotic stresses create osmotic stress (doi.10.3389/fpls.2020.559876), oxidative damage (doi.10.1007/s12010-018-2784-5), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) (doi.10.1038/s41598-018-34944-0), that lead to numerous physio-molecular changes, including a decrease in photosynthetic activities (doi.10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.01.097), DNA, protein and membrane damages, and nutritional imbalance in plants (doi.10.1371/journal.pone.0206388) and ultimately affect plant growth and productivity (doi.10.1002/jsfa.9423). Nevertheless, to adjust stress, stress-induced plant evolved mechanisms to enhance the concentration of the majority of polyphenols (doi.10.1038/s41598-018-30897-6; doi.10.1186/s12870-018-1484-1) and detoxify the ROS."

Line 651: Phenolic compounds have high antioxidant activity (add a reference here. the author may cite doi.10.3389/fnut.2020.587257) that can scavenge reactive oxygen species (add a reference here. the author may cite (doi.10.1186/s12870-020-02780-y),

Line 109: Change “elements mentioned in the present study” to “elements mentioned in the present study were corroborative to the previous findings (add a reference here. the author may cite doi.10.1038/s41598-020-71714-3)”.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 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: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Umakanta Sarker

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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

**********

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: Well it was already a worth to publish manuscript, however, I found some minor changes and authors have now carefully modified the paper. It can be published in its current form.

Reviewer #2: Authors have clearly revised the manuscript based on my comments, so this work can be accepted for publication

**********

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: Yes: Panagiotis Kalozoumis

[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.

Effects of growth promoting microorganisms on tomato seedlings growing in different media conditions

PONE-D-21-25205R2

Dear Dr. Pokluda,

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.

Please addressed few typos error during proof reading:

-The authors newly include a space between number and %. Delete the space throughout the whole MS. 

-Table 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6: Reduce font size to accommodate values and writing nicely.

-Line 615: Change “(e.g. [66])” to “[66]”. Also in line 616

-Reference chapter: Number the last reference. Use this number in text also.

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.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

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,

Umakanta Sarker

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: