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PONE-D-22-07611Deciphering the role of polyphenol in defence mechanism against Tea mosquito bug (Helopeltis theivora Waterhouse.) in cocoa (Theobroma cocoa L.)PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. JS,

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.

Your manuscript has now been reviewed, and the reviewers' comments are appended below. You will see that, while they find your work of interest, they have raised points that need to be addressed before we can make a decision on publication. Pay attention to statistic data, trying to show them clearly.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jun 09 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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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Patrizia Falabella

Academic Editor

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: 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: Manuscript is well written with new information but the manuscript miss the detailed study.

1. Rearing of Helopeltis in cocoa pods has to be tried

2. Screening of cocoa pods and shoots has to be conducted with three species of Helopeltis

3. Cocoa pod screening has to be condcuted directly in field to understand the feeding preference

4. Choice test has to be conducted

5. Helopeltis can easily adapt to resistant clones in matter of time

6. All the comments are directly marked in the MS

7. Study has to conducted with above points to get the real answer of resistant clones

Reviewer #2: Dear Authors

The work done on screening 20 varieties of cocoa against TMB based on the phenolic activity is appreciated. The findings in this study will definitely help researchers in plant improvement work in future. The manuscript structure is good but author has to be little bit focussed and concentrated while preparing manuscript. Some points for improvement are listed here:

1. Line 80- the normal reference style is deviated

2. A scoring method to classify the varieties as highly resistant to highly susceptible and reference quoted as no. 8. I had gone through the original paper of Srikumar and Bhatt but couldn’t find any mention on scoring there. They describe life table studies (line 80,151)

3. In many places in manuscript, author made non sensible reference citation ( line 70,90, 135, 137, 189) It is suggested to go through different papers published in PloS One journal for understanding the correct citation of references in text.

4. Line 101 and 102-repetition

5. It is good if you can add author name to the scientific name when mentioned first time in text ( line 130 for Mikania micrantha)

6. Line 131- females started laying eggs in two days… whether they were collected from field or from insectary?

7. In Line 87 Fig 2 is mentioned which is quite irrelevant

8. Results portion may be modified and thoroughly checked as some mismatching were found. Line 151- author says 5 hybrids were ranked as Highly resistant where as table shows there were seven. Listing of varieties based on your observations in text should not be confusing to the readers. Please make it in order as they appear or in ascending /descending order of resistant.

9. A strong negative correlation is not observed especially in case of pods

10. Please pay more attention and ethics while preparing manuscript in future

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Reviewer #1: Yes: SRIKUMAR KODAKKADAN

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.]

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-22-07611.pdf

PONE-D-22-07611R1Deciphering the role of polyphenol in defence mechanism against Tea mosquito bug (Helopeltis theivora Waterhouse.) in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.)PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Minimol,

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 08-07-2022. 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,

Patrizia Falabella

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.

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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 #2: (No Response)

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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 #2: Yes

**********

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

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 #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 #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 #2: Happy to know that almost all the suggestions which I pointed out were taken seriously by the authors and found incorporated in the revised manuscript. But still some points have to be addressed before accepting the same for publishing. The points are mentioned below:

1. Scoring method on screening is still not conspicuous. Not satisfied with the explanation by the authors. Reference mentioned in line 87 doesn’t pertain to the subject (scoring). Authors replied that they discussed with the authors of reference cited (as ref. no. 8) and derived a method. Developing a reliable scoring method is fine but citing an irrelevant reference is not a good practice.

2. What is the transformation used for data in table 3? It is not mentioned in table or text.

3. Reference 16 is not in journal format. please refer https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines for assistance

4. Year of publication and page no. are missing from reference no. 2. The correct year is 2017 and page no.199-213.

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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 #2: No

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[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: plos one 2022 second revision.docx

Deciphering the role of polyphenol in defence mechanism against Tea mosquito bug (Helopeltis theivora Waterhouse.) in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.)

PONE-D-22-07611R2

Dear Dr. Minimol,

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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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,

Patrizia Falabella

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: