Is Phytomelatonin a New Plant Hormone?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is very controversial and the receptor identification is good as these authors point out but there is an entire cemetery of journal articles in putative receptors for plant hormones that never could be repeated, and it would have been nice for these authors to have been more critical of that one paper and express reservations until it is repeated. But that might be too much to expect for folks that are not in this field. Anyway it is well written and certainly sparked my interest, although i am still skeptical of melatonin as a hormone in plants. Hope the above is helpful.

Author Response

 

Thank you for your positive valuation. The following phrase has been added respect to phytomelatonin receptor (L199-200): “However, the consequent description of the phytomelatonin receptor in other plant species also seems to be an essential requirement.”

 

Reviewer 2 Report

Manuscript No:

Title: Is phytometaonin a new plant hormone?

In the present review, the authors provided useful information and comprehensive discussion to consider melatonin as a new pytohormone. Melatonin is known as a hormone in animals, however, melatonin is quantified in plant tissues and its role in the plant stress acclimation process has been well documented. In this present review, the authors provided functions of melatonin in animal and plant systems. Melatonin plays an important role in animals to regulate body temperature and biological clock. Additionally in plant melatonin also plays an important role especially in photosynthesis, metabolism of primary and secondary metabolites, hormonal homeostasis, circadian clock, redox regulation, etc. The authors discussed the information regarding melatonin biosynthesis, receptor, signal transductions and biological functions in plants and strongly suggest to consider “melatonin” as new phytohormone and elucidate its biological functions.  Undoubtedly, the present review is interesting and contributes to elucidate the biological roles of melatonin in plants. The manuscript is well written and easy to understand. However, authors may improve the abstract and introduction section.

In the abstract and introduction sections, authors focused on the functions of melatonin in the animal. I would suggest to change the “introduction” to “Melatonin role in the animal” and presents a brief introduction about melatonin focused on both plant and animal origin and leading to the objectives of the current manuscript.

I would also suggest to change the subheading “introduction” to “Melatonin roles in the animals” and presents a brief introduction about melatonin focused on both plant and animal origin and leading to the objectives of the current manuscript.

 

Author Response

Thank you for your positive evaluation. The two suggestions are taken into account below:

Regarding the first one, the reviewer suggests that we change the “Introduction” epigraph to that of “Melatonin roles in the animal”. We do not know if the Introduction section can be omitted in this journal. Therefore, we leave it to the Editor for consideration. However, many of the actions of melatonin in animals are indicated in the Introduction section, in order to keep them in mind and be able to be compared with the most deeply analyzed melatonin in plants. It is obvious that our interest is above all in the plants, as well as the journal. With regard to the presentation of objectives, we think they are perfectly exposed at the end of the Introduction section, at L59-62.