Peer Review History
Original SubmissionAugust 21, 2023 |
---|
Dear Dr Gao, Thank you very much for submitting your manuscript "Symbiotic bacteria confer insecticide resistance by metabolizing buprofezin in the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål)" for consideration at PLOS Pathogens. As with all papers reviewed by the journal, your manuscript was reviewed by members of the editorial board and by several independent reviewers. In light of the reviews (below this email), we would like to invite the resubmission of a significantly-revised version that takes into account the reviewers' comments. While most of the comments by the two reviewers relate to issues with clarity reviewer one has asked for an additional control. Please attempt to address all issues raised by the two reviewers. We cannot make any decision about publication until we have seen the revised manuscript and your response to the reviewers' comments. Your revised manuscript is also likely to be sent to reviewers for further evaluation. When you are ready to resubmit, please upload the following: [1] A letter containing a detailed list of your responses to the review comments and a description of the changes you have made in the manuscript. Please note while forming your response, if your article is accepted, you may have the opportunity to make the peer review history publicly available. The record will include editor decision letters (with reviews) and your responses to reviewer comments. If eligible, we will contact you to opt in or out. [2] Two versions of the revised manuscript: one with either highlights or tracked changes denoting where the text has been changed; the other a clean version (uploaded as the manuscript file). Important additional instructions are given below your reviewer comments. Please prepare and submit your revised manuscript within 60 days. If you anticipate any delay, please let us know the expected resubmission date by replying to this email. Please note that revised manuscripts received after the 60-day due date may require evaluation and peer review similar to newly submitted manuscripts. Thank you again for your submission. We hope that our editorial process has been constructive so far, and we welcome your feedback at any time. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments. Sincerely, Elizabeth A McGraw, PhD Academic Editor PLOS Pathogens Ronald Swanstrom Section Editor PLOS Pathogens Kasturi Haldar Editor-in-Chief PLOS Pathogens orcid.org/0000-0001-5065-158X Michael Malim Editor-in-Chief PLOS Pathogens *********************** Dear Authors, While most of the comments by the two reviewers relate to issues with clarity reviewer one has asked for an additional control. Please attempt to address all issues raised by the two reviewers. Reviewer's Responses to Questions Part I - Summary Please use this section to discuss strengths/weaknesses of study, novelty/significance, general execution and scholarship. Reviewer #1: Insecticide resistance in insect pest populations is one of major challenges in insect pest management. Understanding the mechanisms of insecticide resistance in insect pest populations is critically important for successful management of the pest populations. This study addresses an important question regarding the mechanism of buprofezin resistance in the brown planthopper, a major insect pest of the rice crop. The authors used many different approaches to address this research question. All the results are convincing and supportive to their conclusions. Although the contribution of symbiotic bacteria to insecticide resistance of the host insects has been reported by other researchers, this study definitely is unique in terms of this particular insect species potentially using buprofezin as a carbon source. Reviewer #2: Zeng et al reported here a novel N. lugens resistance mechanism to buprofezin and emphasized the significance of factoring in the interactions among symbiotic bacteria, host insects and insecticides in the environment. They utilized a range of methods, including bioassays, amplicon sequencing, bacterial culture and inoculation, genomic analysis, and more, to provide compelling evidence that the symbiotic Serratia marcescens inside N. lugens confers buprofezin resistance through biodegradation. These findings hold substantial promise, both in the realm of scientific progress and in terms of pest management. ********** Part II – Major Issues: Key Experiments Required for Acceptance Please use this section to detail the key new experiments or modifications of existing experiments that should be absolutely required to validate study conclusions. Generally, there should be no more than 3 such required experiments or major modifications for a "Major Revision" recommendation. If more than 3 experiments are necessary to validate the study conclusions, then you are encouraged to recommend "Reject". Reviewer #1: I don't see any major issues regarding this study. However, I feel that there is room to improve the clarity of the manuscript as noted below: 1) The resistant strain originally collected from the field was 44.3-fold resistance to buprofezin as compared with the susceptible strain. After the laboratory selections with buprofezin for five generations, what was the level of buprofezin resistance of the insect when it was used in the study? 2) The authors mentioned "where buprofezin was used as the sole carbon source" Lines 200-201). This statement may be true when the authors only considered the chemical added to the LB medium; however, the statement seems to have ignored the carbon source from the LB medium, which the bacteria can use for them to grow. In comparison to the small amount of buprofezin in the medium, the major carbon source for the bacteria is the LB medium. 3) From the evolution point of view, I don't think that this particular symbiotic bacterial strain must rely on buprofezin as the sole carbon source for its growth as buprofezin as an insecticide is very new to the bacterium. If this is the case, the bacterium would not be able to survive on the LB medium without buprofezin. 4) It was a great idea to examine possible involvement of Bup_Serratia in degrading buprofezin by inoculating the buprofezin-susceptible planthoppers with Bup_Serratia followed by buprofezin bioassays. However, the results would be more convincing if the authors have included an additional control of the LB medium containing a S. marcescens strain incapable of degrading buprofezin. This additional control can eliminate possible absorbance of the insecticide by the bacterial cells or the cell debris, which reduce the contact of the insect to the insecticide. This is particular helpful as the difference in survival rate between the control (the LB medium only) and the treatment is only abut 20% at 120 hours (Fig. 3D). 5) Fig. 1B shows that the resistant strain became more susceptible (the survival rate decreased from about 80% to 40%) when the insect was treated with tetracycline. I was wondering if this relatively small change can completely explain over 40-fold of resistance. Are there any other resistance mechanisms involved in buprofezin resistance in this resistant strain, and/or is the growth inhibition of the bacteria after treated with the antibiotic under the experimental conditions complete. The authors might want to clarify or discuss this. Reviewer #2: (No Response) ********** Part III – Minor Issues: Editorial and Data Presentation Modifications Please use this section for editorial suggestions as well as relatively minor modifications of existing data that would enhance clarity. Reviewer #1: 1) The manuscript needs to be further polished to correct some English issues. For example, on Line 24, a symbiotic "bacteria" should be changed to a symbiotic "bacterium". On Line 27, "sensitive" should be changed to "susceptible". On Line 59, the sentence "Among the most damaging of these pests and pathogens are insects" is grammatically incorrect. 2) The statement on Lines 41-43 is biased regarding different resistance mechanisms. Specifically, the alteration of the expression of detoxification enzymes is not caused by gene mutations. There are some examples that the gene mutations may result in more efficient enzymes for degrading insecticides. 3) On Line 51, I suggest to change "microbe x host insect x environment interactions" into "microbe-host insect-environment interactions". 4) On line 336, what do "Shannon and Simpson indices" exactly tell us? Please explain the differences. 5) Please describe the experiments of treating the NIS strain with the LB media containing Bup_Serratia. For example, how did the authors treat the insects and what was the time interval between the treatments of Bup_Serratia and buprofezin. 6) Fig3. D and E appear to be incorrectly labeled. Based on the data, E should be D while D should be E. Reviewer #2: 1. The strains (NIS or NIB) used in each panel should be indicated in the Fig 1 for clarity. 2. I think the authors did not test the original G0 strains with antiboitics or 16S sequencing, so the buprofezin resistance may be associated with symbiont bacteria, but not "the increase of buprofezin resistance" . It will be also useful if the authors can give the rationale about why they chose this Yunan strain. 3, Fig 3D, what is SS? I prefer full name here. Besides, the figure legends for panel D and E should be exchanged. 4, From line 372 and in discussion, there is currently no biochemical or genetic confirmation regarding these candidate genes, and their amino acid sequence identity to known BfzA-C is not very high, thus the authors should exercise caution when drawing their conclusions. 5, The detection of Bup_Serratia from field planthopper populations is important to show the ecological relevance of this symbiont-mediated resistance. As a result, are these strains more resistant than NIS strains against buprofezin? 6, Line 81, the authors mentioned that there are other resistant mechanisms such as overexpression of P450 and target-site mutation, therefore, they should also check these genetic characteristics in both sensitive NIS strain and resistant NIB strain (because these two strains were collected from two distant locations). Such results will be helpful to show the precise contribution of symbionts to buprofezin resistance. ********** 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 Figure 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. 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 us at figures@plos.org. Data Requirements: Please note that, as a condition of publication, PLOS' data policy requires that you make available all data used to draw the conclusions outlined in your manuscript. Data must be deposited in an appropriate repository, included within the body of the manuscript, or uploaded as supporting information. This includes all numerical values that were used to generate graphs, histograms etc.. For an example see here on PLOS Biology: http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001908#s5. Reproducibility: To enhance the reproducibility of your results, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io, where a protocol can be assigned its own identifier (DOI) such that it can be cited independently in the future. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option to publish peer-reviewed clinical study protocols. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols |
Revision 1 |
Dear Dr Gao, We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript 'Symbiotic bacteria confer insecticide resistance by metabolizing buprofezin in the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål)' has been provisionally accepted for publication in PLOS Pathogens. Before your manuscript can be formally accepted you will need to complete some formatting changes, which you will receive in a follow up email. A member of our team will be in touch with a set of requests. Please note that your manuscript will not be scheduled for publication until you have made the required changes, so a swift response is appreciated. IMPORTANT: The editorial review process is now complete. PLOS will only permit corrections to spelling, formatting or significant scientific errors from this point onwards. Requests for major changes, or any which affect the scientific understanding of your work, will cause delays to the publication date of your manuscript. Should you, your institution's press office or the journal office choose to press release your paper, you will automatically be opted out of early publication. We ask that you notify us now if you or your institution is planning to press release the article. All press must be co-ordinated with PLOS. Thank you again for supporting Open Access publishing; we are looking forward to publishing your work in PLOS Pathogens. Best regards, Elizabeth A McGraw, PhD Academic Editor PLOS Pathogens Ronald Swanstrom Section Editor PLOS Pathogens Kasturi Haldar Editor-in-Chief PLOS Pathogens orcid.org/0000-0001-5065-158X Michael Malim Editor-in-Chief PLOS Pathogens *********************************************************** Reviewer Comments (if any, and for reference): |
Formally Accepted |
Dear Dr Gao, We are delighted to inform you that your manuscript, "Symbiotic bacteria confer insecticide resistance by metabolizing buprofezin in the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål)," has been formally accepted for publication in PLOS Pathogens. We have now passed your article onto the PLOS Production Department who will complete the rest of the pre-publication process. All authors will receive a confirmation email upon publication. The corresponding author will soon be receiving a typeset proof for review, to ensure errors have not been introduced during production. Please review the PDF proof of your manuscript carefully, as this is the last chance to correct any scientific or type-setting errors. Please note that major changes, or those which affect the scientific understanding of the work, will likely cause delays to the publication date of your manuscript. Note: Proofs for Front Matter articles (Pearls, Reviews, Opinions, etc...) are generated on a different schedule and may not be made available as quickly. Soon after your final files are uploaded, the early version of your manuscript, if you opted to have an early version of your article, will be published online. The date of the early version will be your article's publication date. The final article will be published to the same URL, and all versions of the paper will be accessible to readers. Thank you again for supporting open-access publishing; we are looking forward to publishing your work in PLOS Pathogens. Best regards, Kasturi Haldar Editor-in-Chief PLOS Pathogens orcid.org/0000-0001-5065-158X Michael Malim Editor-in-Chief PLOS Pathogens |
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 .