14-3-3 Proteins Participate in Regulation of Natural Rubber Biosynthesis in Hevea brasiliensis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The overall manuscript was written very poorly. In addition, there are many grammatical and punctuation errors. I have highlighted the errors in the attached file. 

1. English language improvement is required. 

2. Scientific name of the plant must be italic throughout the manuscript. 

3. Methodology needs to be revised regarding proper referencing, instrument names etc.

4. Results were justified, but the discussion is feeble and needs to be rewritten with more cited references. 

5. Authors previously published two research articles on 14-3-3 proteins with near about similar results to the present manuscript. What is the novelty of the present manuscript?

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

The overall manuscript was written very poorly. In addition, there are many grammatical and punctuation errors. I have highlighted the errors in the attached file. 

Response: The errors in the attached file have been revised accordingly.

Point 1: English language improvement is required. 

Response 1: English language has been checked and corrected by an expert in English.

Point 2: Scientific name of the plant must be italic throughout the manuscript. 

Response 2: The scientific names of all plants have been revised to be italic throughout the manuscript.

Point 3: Methodology needs to be revised regarding proper referencing, instrument names etc.

Response 3: Methodology has been revised according to your suggestions.

Point 4: Results were justified, but the discussion is feeble and needs to be rewritten with more cited references. 

Response 4: The discussion section has been rewritten with more cited references. 

Point 5: Authors previously published two research articles on 14-3-3 proteins with near about similar results to the present manuscript. What is the novelty of the present manuscript?

Response 5: A research article is about “Identification and characterization of the 14-3-3 gene family in Hevea brasiliensis”.

Another research article is about “The 14-3-3 protein (HbGF14a) binds to a RING zinc finger protein (HbRZFP1) to mediate the expression of HRT2 in H. brasiliensis”.

This present manuscript describes Y2H analysis to identify interacting proteins with 14-3-3 proteins (HbGF14s) in H. brasiliensis, and the interaction of HbGF14c with HbSRPP of H. brasiliensis using BiFC and in vitro Pull-down assay. The novelty of the present manuscript is mutation analysis of HbSRPP to confirm the sequence-specific interaction of HbGF14c with HbSRPP. 

Reviewer 2 Report

14-3-3 proteins participate in regulation of natural rubber  biosynthesis in Hevea brasiliensis

 

Abstract

 

Add some of the results

check format in first line

 

Introduction

check format.

 

Plant Materials

 

Write about how many samples seeds/varieties etc. write more to clear sampling.

You use clone, how about its parents???? what is difference, give some history of clone.

 

Results

 

Finding the pathway will be more helpful.

Add some more figures of PCR etc.

 

Supplementary files

Add temp. cycles etc.

 

Overall

Improve the text, format, common, space, full stop etc. some English also.    

Author Response

Point 1: Abstract

Add some of the results

check format in first line

Response 1: Thanks for your suggestions. The suggestions have been considered and revised. Please see the color section of the manuscript.

Point 2: Introduction

check format.

Response 2: Done accordingly.

Point 3: Plant Materials

Write about how many samples seeds/varieties etc. write more to clear sampling.

You use clone, how about its parents???? what is difference, give some history of clone.

Response 3: Thanks for your suggestions. The samples have been described in detail.

Point 4: Results

Finding the pathway will be more helpful.

Add some more figures of PCR etc.

Response 4: It has been modified in Section 3.1. We have added some figures of PCR.

Point 5: Supplementary files

Add temp. cycles etc.

Response 5: Done accordingly.

Point 6: Overall

Improve the text, format, common, space, full stop etc. some English also.    

Response 6: We have carefully checked and revised the format, common, space, full stop of the full manuscript. English language has been checked and corrected by an expert in English.

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript is clear, relevant to the research area, and well structured. The references cited are mostly non-recent publications, but most are relevant. It does not contain an excessive number of self-citations. The article is scientifically sound and the experimental design is appropriate for hypothesis testing. The results of the manuscript are reproducible as indicated in the methods section. The figures and tables are appropriate, informative, and well presented. They correctly reflect the data, but are somewhat confusing to interpret and understand. In Figure 2, an arrow should be used to indicate the major molecular marker variables. Line 196 is missing a space between paragraphs. The conclusions are consistent with the evidence and arguments contained in the results and the evidence found and discussed in the discussions.

Author Response

Point : The manuscript is clear, relevant to the research area, and well structured. The references cited are mostly non-recent publications, but most are relevant. It does not contain an excessive number of self-citations. The article is scientifically sound and the experimental design is appropriate for hypothesis testing. The results of the manuscript are reproducible as indicated in the methods section. The figures and tables are appropriate, informative, and well presented. They correctly reflect the data, but are somewhat confusing to interpret and understand. In Figure 2, an arrow should be used to indicate the major molecular marker variables. Line 196 is missing a space between paragraphs. The conclusions are consistent with the evidence and arguments contained in the results and the evidence found and discussed in the discussions.

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. All suggestions have been considered and revised. Please see the color section of the manuscript.

Reviewer 4 Report

Recommend 

Author Response

Thanks for your review of the manuscript.

Reviewer 5 Report

The work is very interesting, and manipulated a good idea.

However, some indicator points will help to improve the final form of this manuscript.

So, would you please, follow the following points:-

In Abstract:-

In line 14, please change the font of “adjust” to be homogenous with the text font.

In line 17, 21 and 26, make “H. brasiliensis” italic

In introduction:-

Please make all the plant name is italic in all the text (ex: Arabidopsis thaliana and Hevea brasiliensis)

In the first paragraph of introduction, there is 20 references mentioned there. Is it acceptable!!!

In materials and methods:-

In line 66, please mind the spaces between words (i.e., Sciences( Danzhou, Hainan, China).)

In lines 85 and 86, would you please insert this as equation, not as normal text. (i.e., The recombination rate = numbers of positive colonies / numbers of selected colonies)

In figure 3 and table 1, please mention the source of this data obtained (like NCBI or what).

In figure 5, please mention the name of microscope used to obtain this figure.

Author Response

The work is very interesting, and manipulated a good idea.

However, some indicator points will help to improve the final form of this manuscript.

So, would you please, follow the following points:-

In Abstract:-

Point 1：In line 14, please change the font of “adjust” to be homogenous with the text font.

Response 1: It has been revised.

Point 2：In line 17, 21 and 26, make “H. brasiliensis” italic

Response 2: The errors have been revised.

In introduction:-

Point 3：Please make all the plant name is italic in all the text (ex: Arabidopsis thaliana and Hevea brasiliensis)

Response 3: All the plant names have been revised to be italic in all the text.

Point 4：In the first paragraph of introduction, there is 20 references mentioned there. Is it acceptable!!!

Response 4: The paragraph of introduction has been adjusted and revised.

In materials and methods:-

Point 5：In line 66, please mind the spaces between words (i.e., Sciences( Danzhou, Hainan, China).)

Response 5: Done accordingly.

Point 6：In lines 85 and 86, would you please insert this as equation, not as normal text. (i.e., The recombination rate = numbers of positive colonies / numbers of selected colonies)

Response 6: Thanks for your suggestions. Done accordingly.

Point 7：In figure 3 and table 1, please mention the source of this data obtained (like NCBI or what).

Response 7: The source of this data has been added in in figure 3 and table 1.

Point 8：In figure 5, please mention the name of microscope used to obtain this figure.

Response 8: The name of microscope has been added in figure 5.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

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