PONE-D-24-16827Relationship between chromatin configuration and maturation ability in vitro and in vivo in rat oocytesPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Sui,

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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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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 work seems to be interesting and has clinical significance.

The abstract needs to be rewritten using simple sentences.

Some other microscopic techniques can be carried out to validate the observations

Reviewer #2: The manuscript by Gong et al, titled " Relationship between chromatin configuration and maturation ability in vitro and in vivo in rat oocytes" reports changes in the chromatin configuration in the germinal vesicles (GVs) of rat oocytes regulates their growth and maturation in in vitro culture. Specifically, they show that the SN-2 chromatin configuration in GVs of the rat oocytes increased with rat oocyte growth and maturation. The authors infer from these observations that the SN2 configuration enables or “permits” oocyte development.

While the correlation is intriguing and the manuscript is well written, their conclusion is based upon conjecture. It is equally plausible that development cues within the oocyte confers the SN2 configuration within its GV chromatin.

To draw unambiguous conclusion that “SN2 configuration enables or “permits” oocyte development”, the authors must experimentally show that altering the chromatin configuration of the GVs also changes maturation rate of the Oocytes.

Reviewer #3: The manuscript entitled “Relationship between Chromatin Configuration and Maturation Ability In Vitro and In Vivo in Rat Oocytes” by Zhaoqing Gong, Yujie Wang, Jiayi Tang, Yang Xu, Hongkai Wang et al., presents a significant study in reproductive biology and in vitro embryo generation. The authors have put tremendous effort into this study, which is well appreciated. The relevance of chromatin compaction in embryo development is a well-studied topic, and the negative correlation between chromatin compaction and transcription is unarguable. Although this research is reproduced in a new model system, the study's novelty can be questioned, though no credits are taken away from this essential scientific research.

Suggestions:

1. I strongly recommend that the authors avoid number tables and substitute them with bar graphs to attract more reader attention and highlight the significance of data.

2. The authors explain the role of PMS Gonadotropin in chromatin configuration in the results, but they do not mention the oocyte size range.

3. In the results where the authors are looking for chromatin configuration during IVM, all the hours mentioned are offset by half an hour. Please clarify these observations (Table S4-S8).

4. When comparing the chromatin configuration of healthy and atretic follicles, only prematurely condensed non-surrounded nucleolus (cSN-1) seems to be higher in atretic oocytes. Even though the cSN-1 configuration is significantly higher in atretic oocytes, the SN-2 configuration seems less, indicating it is the limiting stage for development. Is there any explanation for these observations?

5. In the transcription assay, the authors should explain the zero-transcription activity in the oocyte with the SN-2 configuration, specifically how protein homeostasis is maintained without transcription.

6. In the discussion, the authors mentioned the similarity between the widespread use of rat models in human diseases. I encourage the authors to explain the similarities and differences between rat oocyte models and human systems for oocyte development. This would justify the use of rats in this study.

Overall, this is a well-documented and designed study. As mentioned, the novelty is still questioned, but explaining the system’s similarities with humans will improve the relevance of these observations.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Relationship between chromatin configuration and maturation ability of rat oocytes in vitro and in vivo

PONE-D-24-16827R1

Dear Dr. Sui,

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.

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Kind regards,

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 #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 #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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 #3: 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 #3: 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 #3: (No Response)

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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 #3: Yes: vinesh vinayachandran

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