PONE-D-23-08621Global transcriptional analysis of Geobacter sulfurreducensgsu1771 mutant biofilm grown on two different support structuresPLOS ONE

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: N/A

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: The no of references should be reduced.

The manuscript contains voluminous data , that often confuses the reader as the objectives of the work is not mentioned clearly in the Introduction.

However the work is good and deserves publication after minor revision.

Reviewer #2: Appears to be interesting paper following up on prior observations. The entire paper is based on transcriptional analysis but reviewer is unable to review without access to RNAseq data. NCBI DEO database data locked until 2025 without secure token.

No data on depth, % that was rRNA, or quality of RNA read data.

Also unable to accept without a supplementary table of --entire-- transcriptional data. Only selected data is provided about author-selected genes. This selection is based on a "Custom script" used for analysis, unable to verify or repeat analysis. Unable to use data for future work if only subset chosen by unrepeatable analysis.

Please check Fig 5 -- if only a few microamps of current were produced from such large 65 cm^2 electrodes, the biofilms are barely alive and should not be used. It is very odd that the person who performed crucial experiements needed to produce the key data in this paper is not an author or part of any part of the analysis. If there is no author on this paper who understands the difference between good and bad growth on the electrode, it is suspect.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Global transcriptional analysis of Geobacter sulfurreducens gsu1771 mutant biofilm grown on two different support structures

PONE-D-23-08621R1

Dear Dr. Juarez,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication (necessary suggestions/concerned raised by the reviewers are addressed) and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Moupriya Nag

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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