PONE-D-23-22687Unravelling the novel genetic diversity and marker-trait associations of corn leaf aphidPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Jasrotia,

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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: No

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: The manuscript entitled "Unravelling the novel genetic diversity and marker-trait associations of corn leaf aphid" is dealing with one of the most important insect of wheat. The study reports important marker trait associations genes for corn leaf aphid. The study is important and I recommend acceptance of this manuscript after the authors make following changes in the manuscript:

1. A few other aphid species also infest wheat crop in north-western plains of Punjab and Haryana. So, how you ensure that the standing wheat crop was only infested with R. maidis and no other aphid species were present?

2. In the whole manuscript the ‘%’ sign should be replaced with ‘per cent’ except those in the brackets.

3. On Page no. 4, Line no. 86, the sentence ‘DNA markers linked to insect resistance genes can be identified using Simple-Sequence Repeats (SSRs)’ needs to be revised because SSRs are itself DNA markers.

4. On Page no. 4, Line no. 91, insert space between ‘breeding process’ and ‘(Wani et al. 2022)’.

5. What was the criteria for selection and why only these 48 wheat germplasms were taken into consideration?

6. At which time or stage or interval, the number of aphids infesting wheat plants was counted for phenotyping.

7. On Page no. 10, Line no. 219, insert space between ‘-log10(p-value) ≤ 2’ and ‘To visualize’.

8. As per the manuscript, to visualize the results of association mapping, Manhattan plots were created. But why these are not included in the manuscript?

9. On Page no. 19, Line no. 442, insert space between ‘aphid resistance.’ and ‘LD’.

Reviewer #2: Overall, the research paper titled " Unravelling the novel genetic diversity and marker-trait associations of corn leaf aphid" explores an interesting and relevant topic related to corn leaf aphids in wheat. The authors have conducted a comprehensive study on this pest's genetic diversity and marker-trait associations. However, there are several areas that need improvement and clarification before the paper can be considered for publication:

1. The title should give a good overview of the paper's focus. The present title is unclear and misleading about whether the work was done using corn or wheat. Authors must include the crop name in the title for clarity of the work.

2. The use of SSR markers is appropriate for studying genetic diversity, but it would be beneficial to discuss why SSRs were chosen over other marker types (e.g., SNP markers) and their advantages and limitations in this context.

3. Ensure that the references cited in the manuscript are up-to-date and relevant to the topic and also correctly formatted.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Reyazul Rouf Mir

Reviewer #2: Yes: Sarfraz Ahmad

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Unravelling the novel genetic diversity and marker-trait associations of corn leaf aphid resistance in wheat using microsatellite markers

PONE-D-23-22687R1

Dear Dr. Jasrotia,

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,

Mehdi Rahimi, Ph.D.

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 #2: All comments have been addressed

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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

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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

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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

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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: (No Response)

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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: Yes: Sarfraz Ahmad

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