PONE-D-21-26984Effects of Guangzhou seasonal climate change on the development of Aedes albopictus and its susceptibility to DENV-2PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zheng,

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ACADEMIC EDITOR: Dear Dr. Zheng

I received the review of two independent reviewers. Both required additional information to strengthen the manuscript you submitted. Special concerns were raised in missing information from methods and results sections, which strongly affected the manuscript clarity in several ways. One of the reviewers sent attached a PDF file with additional comments.

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31630011), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2017A030313625), and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou (No. 201804020084).

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: The article has potential. But the introduction is extensive and misses the main subject. The hypothesis and the objectives are not clear. The Methods and Results of the statistical tests are not clear. The statistical results presented in the table and figures are not making sense, as well as the groups compared. The four stations appear in the group "environment" and "laboratory", but this description of the result is incompatible with the methodology.... The article has basic problems for answer the objective, such as the description of temperatures and humidity in each group compared.

Reviewer #2: Suggestions to improve clarity.

Methods.

- Line 193: “Larvae were brought back to semi-field setting and reared in microcosms where life

table experiments were conducted”. Please, provide a more detailed description of the “microcosm” used to rear the mosquitoes.

- Line 196: “F3 eggs were used for first round of life-table experiments for three reasons, to allow for get enough eggs within one day, to allow for field mosquitoes to adapt the new environment and mouse blood.”. Please, restructure this sentence to improve clarity.

- Line 203: Is it possible to use another title for this section? It is not clear to me what the authors mean by “Semi-Life scale experimental methods”.

- Line 250. It is not clear to me the section “Expanded culture of experimental mosquitoes”, including the title. Particularly the last sentence “In July 2019, eggs of Ae. albopictus from Guangzhou were released in both the field and laboratory environments.”.

- Line 275. “the mosquito was placed a glass dish on ice”. Please, correct the sentence.

- 288 to 292. Overall I think the description of study design is not straightforward. The section described from line 288 to 292 is an example.

- Line 317. “cDNA was synthesized using a DENV-2-specific primer (5'-TGGTCTTTCCCAGCGTCAAT-3')”. Is this correct? Only one primer was used? Please, clarity.

Results:

- Line 461. Figure 2. Study design was not clear to me, especially what “control” means. Authors could use figure legends to clarify.

- Line 525. Figure 5. Please, add number of mosquitos analyzed in figure legends, so readers can at least average egg/mosquito without having to search for this information in the text. Please, define in figure legends what authors mean by “control”.

- Line 655. I could not find figure 9C and 9D.

Discussion:

- Line 858. Please, restructure sentence to improve clarity.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-21-26984-2Reviewer.pdf

Effects of Guangzhou seasonal climate change on the development of Aedes albopictus and its susceptibility to DENV-2

PONE-D-21-26984R1

Dear Dr. Zheng,

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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Kind regards,

Rafael Maciel-de-Freitas

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE