Beneficial effect on the soil microenvironment of Trichoderma applied after fumigation for cucumber production

Jiajia Wu; Jiahong Zhu; Daqi Zhang; Hongyan Cheng; Baoqiang Hao; Aocheng Cao; Dongdong Yan; Qiuxia Wang; Yuan Li

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0266347

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJanuary 6, 2022
18 Feb 2022 Decision Letter - Rashid Nazir, Editor PONE-D-22-00468Beneficial effect on the soil microenvironment of Trichoderma applied after fumigation for cucumber productionPLOS ONE Dear Dr. Li, 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 Apr 04 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. 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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. 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(Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: This manuscript aims investigated the effects of Trichoderma applied after fumigation on the cucumber growth and soil's microecology, including changes in soil’s physicochemical properties and enzyme activities, and changes in the abundance of beneficial soil microorganisms. The manuscript was very well written, with robust results indicating that the study was well carried out. I suggest that the authors make some small changes to the manuscript, in order to improve it. Some information was difficult to read in the Figures. Standardize units, references and abbreviations. Reviewer #2: This manuscript is generally well-written and the work was well-executed and informative. There are some points, which need to be clarified, which I have indicated directly in the edited version attached to the manuscripts. The title, abstract and keywords are enough to present what was searched and the main results. The introduction is well written and justifies what was done in the research. Materials and methods are well written. However, some adjustments should be made for better understanding by the reader (suggestions in the comments in the document). Overall, the discussion is well written and explains the results. However, some points should be detailed for better understanding by the reader (check in the comments) Conclusions are ok. ****** 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. 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Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: PONE-D-22-00468_reviewer.pdf Attachment Submitted filename: Mansucript_PONE-D-22-00468.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266347.r001
Revision 1
25 Feb 2022 Author Response Dear Editor Rashid Nazir, Thank you very much for your letter and suggestions. We have revised the manuscript. We would like to resubmit it for your consideration. We have addressed the comments raised by the reviewers. Point by point responses to the reviewers’ comments are listed below this letter. We hope that the revised manuscript is now acceptable for publication in your journal. We look forward to hearing from you soon. With best wishes, Yours sincerely, Yuan Li We would like to express our sincere thanks to you and the reviewers for the careful and valuable comments on the manuscript. Replies to the reviewers: Response to reviewer #2: 1. Add air temperature and relative humidity. Response: Thank you for your comments. We have added air temperature and relative humidity according to your suggestion. Soil was fumigated with both DMDS and PIC (DP) in a greenhouse (day/night temperature 28℃/16℃; relative humidity 50−70%; day length 10 h) in Shunyi District, Beijing (40° 13′ N, 116° 65′ E). We have added this part in line 5-6 on page 6 of Materials and methods of the manuscript. 2. Add after how many days was germination. Response: Thank you for your comments. We have added “how many days was germination” according to your suggestion. Cucumber seeds (Jingyou 4, Beijing Wanlongyufeng Seed Co., Ltd., China) were soaked in water at 60°C for 5 h, then placed on sterile wet filter paper in 150 mm diameter petri dishes at 28℃ and 95% humidity, after 1 day was germination. We have added this part in line 16 on page 7 of Materials and methods of the manuscript. 3. Detail the climatic conditions at the time of transplantation. Response: Thank you for your comments. At 26℃ and 60% relative humidity, the cucumber seedlings were transplanted from the tray to individual pots (120 ×130 mm) when the seedlings were in the ‘three-leaf and heart’ stage. We have added this part in line 15 on page 7 of Materials and methods of the manuscript. 4. Add the volume of the pots. Response: Thank you for your comments. At 26℃ and 60% humidity, the cucumber seedlings were transplanted from the tray to individual pots (120 ×130 mm) when the seedlings were in the ‘three-leaf and heart’ stage. We have added the volume of the pots in line 18 on page 7 of Materials and methods of the manuscript. 5. Detail how the pigments were determined. Response: Thank you for your comments. A hand-held, non-destructive SPAD-502 Chlorophyll Meter (Konica Minolta, Inc., Japan) was used measure the amount of chlorophyll present in the cucumber plant leaves in each treatment. We have described this part in greater detail in line 18-21 on page 8 of Materials and methods of the manuscript. 6. Authors should explain why Trichoderma provided plant growth. In relation, the greater availability of nutrients and, consequently, greater possibility of plants to absorb forms of N and P. Chlorophyll contents should be explored. Response: Thank you for your comments. Trichoderma can improve plant growth, which may be due to nutrient use efficiency and photosynthesis. Some Trichoderma strains have been found to enhance plant nutrient uptake and nitrogen use efficiency. Rudresh and colleagues have indicated that the application of Trichoderma enhance chickpea growth, nutrient uptake possibly due to an increased availability of nutrients and a release of growth promoting substances produced by the microbes. Zhou et al. reported that T. harzianum promoted the growth of cucumber seedlings by enhancing root growth and photosynthetic capacity. We have explained this part on page 28-29 of Discussion of the manuscript. 7. Authors should explain why the nitrification of ammonia and denitrification of nitrate in soil is reported to change the relative abundance of NH4+ -N and NO3-N continuously. Response: Thank you for your comments. Typical nitrification refers to the process of oxidizing NH3 or NH4+ to nitrate via hydroxylamine and nitrite under aerobic conditions and the participation of nitrifying microorganisms (NH3/NH4+→NH2OH→NO2−→NO3−). Denitrification means that denitrifying microorganisms gradually reduce NO3- and release N2 or N2O. Therefore, the nitrification of ammonia and denitrification of nitrate in soil to change the relative abundance of NH4+-N and NO3--N continuously. We have explained this part in line 13-20 on page 29 of Discussion of the manuscript. 8. Authors should describe in greater detail how the use of Trichoderma reduces the presence of nematodes. Response: Thank you for your comments. That may be due to the addition of Trichoderma can have direct and indirect effects on nematode, including inducing resistance in plant, and reducing nematode feeding and egg hatching. Yan et al. found that T. harzianum could enhance tomato resistance to root-knot nematode by stimulating secondary metabolism and defense enzyme activity that greatly contribute to alleviate oxidative stress and suppress root-knot nematode infections. We have described this part in greater detail in line 15-21 on page 33 of Discussion of the manuscript. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266347.r002
21 Mar 2022 Decision Letter - Rashid Nazir, Editor Beneficial effect on the soil microenvironment of Trichoderma applied after fumigation for cucumber production PONE-D-22-00468R1 Dear Dr. Li, 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. 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, Rashid Nazir 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 ******** 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 ****** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: 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 ****** 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 ****** 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: (No Response) ****** 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:** Angélica Santos Rabelo de Souza Bahia https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266347.r003
Formally Accepted
25 Mar 2022 Acceptance Letter - Rashid Nazir, Editor PONE-D-22-00468R1 Beneficial effect on the soil microenvironment of Trichoderma applied after fumigation for cucumber production Dear Dr. Li: 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 Rashid Nazir Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266347.r004

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