Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJuly 24, 2024
Decision Letter - ARNABJYOTI DEVA SARMA, Editor

PONE-D-24-30978Optimizing Monascus purpureus Fermentation in Dairy Sludge-Based Medium for Enhanced Production of Vibrant Red Pigment with Minimal Citrinin ContentPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Mortazavi,

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 Dec 13 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,

ARNABJYOTI DEVA SARMA

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.

Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Author,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After the initial review, it is requested to you to kindly provide the graphical abstract of the manuscript along with good image quality of figure no 1 with outmost important.

Anticipating your kind response.

Regards,

Dr. Arnabjyoti Deva Sarma

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

**********

[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: PONE-D-24-30978.pdf
Revision 1

Dear editor

Thank you for considering our manuscript worthy of peer review in PLOS ONE.

The points considered by the respected editor were made in the manuscript as follows:

Questions Responses

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. None of the articles were retracted and the references of the manuscript were not changed.

After the initial review, it is requested to you to kindly provide the graphical abstract of the manuscript along with good image quality of figure no 1 with outmost important. The graphical abstract was drawn and uploaded A higher quality figure was added as Figure 1 in the manuscript.

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/.

The figures were uploaded on the mentioned website and the figures provided by the software were of lower quality than the original figures, so the initial figures of the manuscript were placed in the file.

Dear reviewer

Thank you for carefully reviewing the manuscript and providing your comments.

Questions Responses

This type of research needs special statistical design. Since statistical optimization was not used in this project, the word optimization was removed from the title and changed to “Evaluation of Monascus purpureus Fermentation in Dairy Sludge-Based Medium for Enhanced Production of Vibrant Red Pigment with Minimal Citrinin Content”.

Why italic?? The manuscript was corrected.

Monascis based product or Mold base prosuct It is more correct to use mold-based products, so the text was changed to mold-based products.

Is this comparison logic as one is solid but the second is liquid??? The manuscript was corrected.

PDA was changed to PDB due to typographical error.

Which sample3??? two samples obtained from the control sample and the culture medium containing dairy sludge (enriched sample).

Is there any PTCC M. purpureus PTCC 5303

Please check (starch yeast powder) The purpose was of potato dextrose agar (PDA) and manuscript was corrected.

Are you sure after 7 day spore produced?? According to the used article, 7 days of incubation was done.

Comparison of Monascus purpureus growth, pigment production and composition on different cereal substrates with solid state fermentation

panelIgnatius Srianta, Elok Zubaidah, Teti Estiasih, Mamoru Yamada, Harijono

How you adjusted this concentration???? a concentration of 1.5 x 10 6 spore/mL (McFarland's 0.5 standard) was used and the manuscript was corrected.

How you transform absorption data to absolute content of pigment?? The amount of produced pigment was obtained by multiplying the absorbance value of the sample by the applied dilution (AU/ml).

There is not any method of purification?? Pigment purification was done as follows, which was explained in section 2-6:

Isolation and purification of pigment

Fermented broth medium without cells was used for pigment purification. The filtered solution was concentrated using a rotary evaporator (Rotavapor R-210, Buchi, Switzerland) and then lyophilized and powdered. The powder was extracted using hexane (500 ml in total) for 1 h in a shaker (120 rpm) and concentrated using a rotary evaporator under vacuum. The extracted crude pigment was loaded into a silica gel column (60-120 mesh) and followed different ratios of hexane and ethyl acetate were used as detergents. The fractions eluted from the column that were read by spectrophotometer between 300 and 700 nm were combined. Finally, ethanol was used to wash the target compound.

Mukherjee G, Singh SK. Purification and characterization of a new red pigment from Monascus purpureus in submerged fermentation. Process Biochemistry. 2011;46(1):188-92.

How to determine the quantity of Citrinin? In this method, commercial pure citrinin was used as a standard material and the amount of citrinin was calculated by comparing the absorption rate of the test samples with the standard material sample.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Dear reviewer.docx
Decision Letter - ARNABJYOTI DEVA SARMA, Editor

Evaluation of Monascus purpureus Fermentation in Dairy Sludge-Based Medium for Enhanced Production of Vibrant Red Pigment with Minimal Citrinin Content

PONE-D-24-30978R1

Dear Dr. Mortazavi,

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.

An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

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,

ARNABJYOTI DEVA SARMA

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - ARNABJYOTI DEVA SARMA, Editor

PONE-D-24-30978R1

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Mortazavi,

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team.

At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following:

* All references, tables, and figures are properly cited

* All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission,

* There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset

If revisions are needed, the production department will contact you directly to resolve them. If no revisions are needed, you will receive an email when the publication date has been set. At this time, we do not offer pre-publication proofs to authors during production of the accepted work. Please keep in mind that we are working through a large volume of accepted articles, so please give us a few weeks to review your paper and let you know the next and final steps.

Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. 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.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

DR. ARNABJYOTI DEVA SARMA

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Open letter on the publication of peer review reports

PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.

We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.

Learn more at ASAPbio .