Integrated Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analysis Reveals the Molecular Regulatory Mechanism of Flavonoid Biosynthesis in Maize Roots under Lead Stress

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Title:  Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis reveals the 2 molecular regulatory mechanism of flavonoid biosynthesis in 3 maize roots under lead stress

 

The research aimed to reveal the effect of Pb on the biosynthesis of flavonoids, underlying molecular regulatory mechanisms and determine the involvement of flavonoid compounds in the underlying mechanism of Pb induced changes in root.

 

The experiment is designed well, the writing is good. But there are some suggested corrections before publication.

 

The abstract is qualitative, state main changes in quantitative manner.

Line 63 “…Despite that the adverse effects of Pb on maize have been widely reported….” state some report on this subject. In addition, state the value of flavonoids content in maize roots in comparison to your data in discussion.

Lines 63-65 and lines 67-69 same sentences, revise or merge.

Figure 1 the letters of mean comparison on the columns do not seem correct. The “a” is better to refer to maximum value.

Figure 1 what is the meaning of legend? CK? Pb 40 pb 250 clarify

If possible, for figure 2 “Phenotypic analysis of maize roots under Pb stress” insert better images the quality is low. Also add the scale if possible.

Figure 2 sections D and E insert the letters on the columns.

The result section 2.3. had no logical order in presentation of the content. Please revise

The methods do not contain clustering method nor PCA, but result has both data. State related statistical analysis in method section.

Table 2 the title of treatment is not accepted “Treatment 1” “Treatment 2” revise the title same as the whole text.

The unit of pb in text is unclear, mg /kg of what?

Section 4-6 state the name of genes

2−ΔΔCT change to 2^−ΔΔCT

Section 4-7 state the name of mean comparison test and the experimental design type.

Author Response

Dear Sir,

I appreciate that you have given me honest and good comments on my manuscript（ID: ijms-2999833）titled “Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis reveals the molecular regulatory mechanism of flavonoid biosynthesis in maize roots under lead stress” that was submitted for publication in International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Thank you so much. We have corrected all the errors carefully according to your suggestions, and all revisions have been highlighted with red underline in the Tracked Changes Version of the manuscript. Our responses to your comments are shown (in blue) below. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Editor,

Please receive my review for the manuscript entitled “Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis reveals the molecular regulatory mechanism of flavonoid biosynthesis in maize roots under lead stress” by  Guo et al. 2024.

The manuscript investigated the responses of maize to high concentration of Pb to  evaluate the toxicity effects of Pb on metabolites, expression of genes involved in it, and the concentration of Pb in maize. Although of its merit to be considered for acceptance and publications, the manuscript suffers from the following limitations.

Abstract

The conclusion at the end should be modified, for example the statement that “Therefore, Pb can regulate maize root growth by interfering with the biosynthesis of flavonoids in …” needs to be changed and modified; Pb cannot regulate, but involve in the regulation, and so on.

Introduction

The authors should link very well the problem of Pb toxicity to maize (where, what type of soil, geographic location, and how). This means the authors should define the problem very well in the Abstract and in  the Introduction.

Materials and Methods

Use one section called something like “Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis and talk about replication, experimental design, statistical analysis software used, and so on.

The limitation of this research

The experiment is not replicated across time and location and only one time/year. Also, the authors used only one cultivar so they cannot generalize the results across locations and maize cultivars. Therefore, the authors should address these concerns before acceptance.

Author Response

Dear Sir,

I appreciate that you have given me honest and good comments on my manuscript（ID: ijms-2999833）titled “Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis reveals the molecular regulatory mechanism of flavonoid biosynthesis in maize roots under lead stress” that was submitted for publication in International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Thank you so much. We have corrected all the errors carefully according to your suggestions, and all revisions have been highlighted with red underline in the Tracked Changes Version of the manuscript. Our responses to your comments are shown (in blue) below. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx