Alteration of Photosynthetic and Antioxidant Gene Expression in Sugarcane Infected by Multiple Mosaic Viruses
, Widhi Dyah Sawitri 5 and Bambang Sugiharto 1,2,6,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript is need to correct and answer some comments
1. Abstract:
The abstract must rewrite in logic way, and mention for what are these PS881, PS882,?
2. Line 21-23: "IThe disease incidence" to "symptomatic leaf samples. ":
The aim of study is poorly and need to rewrite
3. Keywords are unsuitable and need to rewrite
4. add all citations in fulltext as numbers according to guidline of journal
5. Line 98-100: "We found that" to end:
Delete it
6. Disease severity index:
What was the scale that used here?
7. Line 252-255:
What is this?Is it introduction or discussion or results?
8. Line 394: "synergistic or antagonistic.":
What is this meant? How to be synergistic or antagonistic?
9. Line 378-388:
need to rewrite. Why are you mentioned to RNAi or PDR? are these your work?
10. Results:
The authors must focuse on results without discusse them or add citations
11. Discussion:
The authos must rewrite depending on aiming of study without write another study. You must depend on your results in discussion
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This manuscript (ijpb-3100608) reports the virus infections on symptomatic leaves from 8 commercial sugarcane cultivars grown at 4 locations in East Java, Indonesia.
The incidence and severity of mosaic symptoms among the 8 cultivars grown at 4 locations were observed and analyzed in the study. Further, the authors confirmed the virus infection using RT-PCR based on the specific primers that target the CP genes of SCMV, SCSMV, and SrMV, respectively. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis confirmed the infection of the viruses. The result indicated single-, double-, and triple-infection on different cultivars. Moreover, the expression levels of genes that are involved in the stress response and photosynthesis were analyzed by RT-qPCR. Overall, the topic was interesting.
However, many issues were found and need improvement, especially in the details of the writing process and the presentation of results."
Minor comments:
1. Some gene names were not written in italic font (e.g. line. 27 “Apx”, line. 31 “RbcS” “Pepc”). Please identify and italicize all instances in the manuscript);
2. To write the name of the plant genus and species, use the italic font (e.g. line. 36 “Saccharum. spp”).
3. Lack of background introduction or connection between the viral infection and the genes detected in the study e.g. gene PsaA.
4. In Figure 3. Lack of the explanation of the control “SYLF”;
Major issues:
1. I am confused about the number of symptomatic samples that were collected. In the manuscript, line 117, line 186, and line 221, 62 symptomatic samples were mentioned. However, according to the RT-PCR results (Figure 2), only 61 samples were positive, and the sample 62 “C-” was no symptomatic control.
2. In Figure 2D. it is good to show the variation of the mosaic leaf symptoms. Please include the pictures from healthy leaf control and at least one from each cultivar that was single-, double-, or triple-infected leaves;
3. In Figures 4 and 5, it is strongly suggested to conduct a statistical significance analysis on all of the gene expression data;
4. Explain the control samples used in Figure 4 and Figure 5 RT-qPCR analysis; Which cultivar do they belong to? Do these genes express different levels in different sugarcane cultivars? If not, please show the result.
5. Line 317-318 “… the expression of Pepc was reduced by approximately half in the single-, double-, and triple-infected leaves compared with that in healthy leaves”. According to the Figure 5C, the reduction did not reach half. Please describe your experimental results or data rigorously.
6. Figure 5D. Please show the loading control of the Western blot result. Please provide the number of samples and repeats that were used in the immunoblot assay.
7. Line 322-323 “…Consistent with the gene expression, the PEPC, RbcL, and RbcS protein expression decreased according to the degree of single, double, and triple infections in the PS881 cultivar…” The decrease of protein RbcL and RbcS was not observable according to the western blot result in Figure 5D.
8. It is possible that there would be another or more reasons that was/ were the cause of the symptoms and gene expression regulation. To confirm your conclusion, the use of purified viruses to infect healthy plants and further detection is required.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
NA
Line 106:
What was the scale of scores that used here?
Author Response
Please find in the attachment file
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
the issues have been corrected;
no
Author Response
Please find in the attachment file
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
