PONE-D-24-19588Title. Host plants selection of Centranthera grandiflora Benth. and nontargeted metabolomics analysis of its parasitic and non-parasitic samplesPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Liu,

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 Aug 08 2024 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,

Rajib Chowdhury, M.Sc.; MPH

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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2. Please amend the title to remove the date: "Title. Host plants selection of Centranthera grandiflora Benth. and nontargeted metabolomics analysis of its parasitic and non-parasitic samples" should be "Host plants selection of Centranthera grandiflora Benth. and nontargeted metabolomics analysis of its parasitic and non-parasitic samples"

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4. Thank you for stating the following financial disclosure: 

   "the Regional Grant of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 32360098); Youth Grant of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 32001684); Key Project of Yunnan Local University Joint Fund (Grant number 202201AN070036) and General Program of Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (Grant number 202201AT070020)." 

Please state what role the funders took in the study.  If the funders had no role, please state: "The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript." 

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Additional Editor Comments:

Please consider the reviewers comments and adjust them accordingly in the manuscript.

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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: No

Reviewer #2: No

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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: I find this study interesting. However, I cannot fully assess the overall content of the manuscript due to the complexity of the results and discussion sections. The authors combine the results and discussion, followed by a separate discussion, which makes it difficult to follow. I suggest improving the presentation by clearly separating the results and discussion sections. The results section should exclusively focus on presenting the findings. Any specific methods or approaches used should be detailed in the methods section. Discussions on the significance of the results should be confined to the discussion section, connecting the overall findings.

Currently, I do not find the manuscript to be well-organized or clearly presented. I recommend that the authors enhance the overall quality of the writing. If you are considering a plant parasitic study, analyzing the chloroplast genome would be highly beneficial. I suggest comparing the chloroplast genomes of parasitic and non-parasitic plants within the same family. The chloroplast genome for the species in question is already available. It is known that due to the parasitic nature, the chloroplast genome is under reduced selective pressure, leading to degradation.

Hopefully, you will add this in all parts of manuscript.

Reviewer #2: This manuscript assesses the host compatibility for C. grandiflora and contrasts the metabolic profiles of parasitized versus non-parasitized C. grandiflora plants. Collectively, the findings contribute to a deeper understanding of C. grandiflora's growth dynamics, which is instrumental for guiding its cultivation and application strategies moving forward. Nonetheless, the manuscript's current presentation requires refinement in both writing quality and organizational structure to meet the publication criteria.

1. Line Numbers: Please include line numbers in the manuscript to enhance the navigability and efficiency of the review process.

2. Paragraph Clarification: On page 3, the secondary paragraph contains a passage that requires rephrasing for clarity and correction of typographical errors: "...2-year-old seedlings with soil ball perennial roots [4]. the leaves of ...".

3. Table 1 Correction: In Table 1, there is a typographical error in the column name; "Name of the possible host palnts" should be corrected to "Name of the possible host plants".

4. Figure and Table Legends: The legends for figures and tables should be expanded with more detailed descriptions to improve clarity and understanding.

5. Consistency in Formatting: Ensure consistency in the use of spaces around the degree symbol for temperature indications, such as "-20℃" or "25 ℃", throughout the manuscript.

6. Figure 2 Enhancement: The inclusion of a scale bar in Figure 2 may aid reviewers in better grasping the spatial context presented in the image.

7. Clarification Needed: On page 12, in the subhead "Differential analysis of parasitic (JS) and non-parasitic (WJ) C. grandiflora", specify the aspects in which the differences are being analyzed. And also check through the manuscript.

8. Figure Title Formatting: The use of parentheses in figure titles, as seen in Figures 4 and 5, is not recommended.

9. Capitalization Consistency: Inconsistencies in capitalization have been noted in various sections, such as "Organic oxygen" and "Lipids" on page 14, which should be corrected for a professional presentation.

10. Table Presentation: The design of most tables should be refined to achieve a higher standard of formality and visual appeal.

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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.

Reviewer #1: No

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.]

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PONE-D-24-19588R1Title. Host plants selection of Centranthera grandiflora Benth. and nontargeted metabolomics analysis of its parasitic and non-parasitic samplesPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Liu,

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 Sep 20 2024 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.

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,

Rajib Chowdhury, M.Sc.; MPH

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Authors, Kindly review the comments and suggestions made by the reviewers' and incorporate them in the manuscript and resubmit it.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: 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 #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: I Don't Know

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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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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: Dear author,

I am not satisfied with the response to my comments. However you have addressed some other comments. So I will left the decision to editor.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: The revised manuscript is well written, and the authors have adequately addressed the previous comments raised.

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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 #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes: Gerald Mboowa

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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.

Title. Host plants selection of Centranthera grandiflora Benth. and nontargeted metabolomics analysis of its parasitic and non-parasitic samples

PONE-D-24-19588R2

Dear Dr. Liu,

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,

Rajib Chowdhury, M.Sc.; MPH

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: