Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJanuary 18, 2022
Decision Letter - Yanbin Yin, Editor

PONE-D-22-01656Assembly and comparative analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome of three Macadamia species (M. integrifolia, M. ternifolia and M. tetraphylla)PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Shi,

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 consider both reviewers comments carefully. Note the detailed comments of reviewer #1 are provided in the manuscript PDF file.

==============================

Please submit your revised manuscript by Mar 31 2022 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,

Yanbin Yin

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 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

2. Thank you for stating the following in the Acknowledgments Section of your manuscript: 

"This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.

31760215 and No. 31801022) and the Technology Innovation Talents Project of

Yunnan Province (2018HB086)."

We note that you have provided funding information that is not currently declared in your Funding Statement. However, funding information should not appear in the Acknowledgments section or other areas of your manuscript. We will only publish funding information present in the Funding Statement section of the online submission form. 

Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript and let us know how you would like to update your Funding Statement. Currently, your Funding Statement reads as follows: 

"This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31760215 and No. 31801022) and the Technology Innovation Talents Project of Yunnan Province (2018HB086)."

Please include your amended statements within your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

3. PLOS requires an ORCID iD for the corresponding author in Editorial Manager on papers submitted after December 6th, 2016. Please ensure that you have an ORCID iD and that it is validated in Editorial Manager. To do this, go to ‘Update my Information’ (in the upper left-hand corner of the main menu), and click on the Fetch/Validate link next to the ORCID field. This will take you to the ORCID site and allow you to create a new iD or authenticate a pre-existing iD in Editorial Manager. Please see the following video for instructions on linking an ORCID iD to your Editorial Manager account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcclfuvtxQ

4. Please include captions for your Supporting Information files at the end of your manuscript, and update any in-text citations to match accordingly. Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information. 

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

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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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

**********

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

**********

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: Overall, the manuscript is well written and data/findings are clearly presented. The methods can be expanded and I have made notes on the manuscript to direct the authors on where to enhance the methods. Likewise, I have provided suggestions for additional literature that can be included in the manuscript at the discretion of the authors.

Reviewer #2: The authors presented a study on three mitogenomes from Macadamia species, and did the comparison of genomic features, repeat sequences, RNA editing, transfer from plastome into mitogenome and phylogeny with other higher plants. This manuscript provides some interesting findings. But there are still a few questions that need to be clarified and improved. In order to make the manuscript much clearer and the conclusions more valid, comments as follows:

1. The Figure 1 on the circular map of three Macadamia mitogenomes, the authors should remake these maps, clear labels for each gene.

2. I suggest the authors take care of the space and consistence on the number and word, for example, “31841bp (cox2)”, there is no space between “31841” and “bp”, but in other places there is space between them; also for the number, “31841” using “31,841” style, etc.

3. The other big problem is the references, the author must be very careful on every reference, such as uppercase, lowercase, italic, journal names, etc. The author must follow the instructions of the reference of this journal.

4. What are the structural differences among the three mitogenomes? How the author verify the accuracy of the three assemblies, especially for a couple of bps difference among these genomes?

5. In the part of “Up to 34.3% (236 sites) RNA editing sites occurred in the first base position of the codon, 68.6% (472 sites) appeared in the second base position, and there was no RNA editing in the third base position.”, why the total percentage > 100%?

6. For the Phylogenetic analysis, the authors need to provide more interesting information or findings.

7. I suggest the authors add more findings from the structural and evolution innovations from these mitogenomes, such as group I and II introns, etc.

**********

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: No

[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.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: PONE-D-22-01656_reviewer_#.pdf
Revision 1

Dear Reviewers:

Reviewer #1: Overall, the manuscript is well written and data/findings are clearly presented. The methods can be expanded and I have made notes on the manuscript to direct the authors on where to enhance the methods. Likewise, I have provided suggestions for additional literature that can be included in the manuscript at the discretion of the authors.

Thank you very much for your guidance. We have made necessary modifications according to the marks.

Reviewer #2: The authors presented a study on three mitogenomes from Macadamia species, and did the comparison of genomic features, repeat sequences, RNA editing, transfer from plastome into mitogenome and phylogeny with other higher plants. This manuscript provides some interesting findings. But there are still a few questions that need to be clarified and improved. In order to make the manuscript much clearer and the conclusions more valid, comments as follows:

1. The Figure 1 on the circular map of three Macadamia mitogenomes, the authors should remake these maps, clear labels for each gene.

The Figure 1 had been redrawn and uploaded in the new manuscript.

2. I suggest the authors take care of the space and consistence on the number and word, for example, “31841bp (cox2)”, there is no space between “31841” and “bp”, but in other places there is space between them; also for the number, “31841” using “31,841” style, etc.

We checked the full text and corrected similar errors.

3. The other big problem is the references, the author must be very careful on every reference, such as uppercase, lowercase, italic, journal names, etc. The author must follow the instructions of the reference of this journal.

All references have been corrected to Plos ONE style.

4. What are the structural differences among the three mitogenomes? How the author verify the accuracy of the three assemblies, especially for a couple of bps difference among these genomes?

As mentioned in the material method, depth of coverage was used to correct mitochondrial sequence information. SPAdes v.3.5.0 software was used to splice and assemble mt genome sequences. To correct the splicing results, the raw sequencing data were mapped to mitochondrial sequences using Geneious software.

5. In the part of “Up to 34.3% (236 sites) RNA editing sites occurred in the first base position of the codon, 68.6% (472 sites) appeared in the second base position, and there was no RNA editing in the third base position.”, why the total percentage > 100%?

This statement has been modified in the new manuscript. 236 RNA editing sites occurred in the first base position of the codon, 472 sites appeared in the second base position, and there was no RNA editing in the third base position.

6. For the Phylogenetic analysis, the authors need to provide more interesting information or findings.

7. I suggest the authors add more findings from the structural and evolution innovations from these mitogenomes, such as group I and II introns, etc.

We have revised the above two points in the new manuscript. Thank you very much for your guidance

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.doc
Decision Letter - Yanbin Yin, Editor

Assembly and comparative analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome of three Macadamia species (M. integrifolia, M. ternifolia and M. tetraphylla)

PONE-D-22-01656R1

Dear Dr. Shi,

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 fix the minor issues that the reviewer identified.

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,

Yanbin Yin

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

**********

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: I am pleased with the author's revision and attention to my comments. However, I have two very minor corrections for the authors to address:

Line 56: "Additionally,, they..."

Please remove the redundant comma.

Line 113 -114 : "...and NCBI were used to annotate the mt genome."

Please cite the program also; I apologize that my previous comment was vague regarding an NCBI citation. Did you use ORF finder? If so, please cite: “…and ORF finder (NCBI) were used to annotate the mt genome.”

Reviewer #2: There are minor errors in the manuscript:

1. Line 56, two comma after "Additionally";

2. Line 123, "Macadamia" is not italic.

**********

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

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Yanbin Yin, Editor

PONE-D-22-01656R1

Assembly and comparative analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome of three Macadamia species (M. integrifolia, M. ternifolia and M. tetraphylla)

Dear Dr. Shi:

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. Yanbin Yin

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Open letter on the publication of peer review reports

PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.

We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.

Learn more at ASAPbio .