The Impact of Aboveground Epichloë Endophytic Fungi on the Rhizosphere Microbial Functions of the Host Melica transsilvanica

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The reviewed manuscript is interesting providing more knowledge on endophytic microorganisms, their metabolism and effect on plants. Such knowledge is always important allowing better understanding on ecosystems functioning. In addition, new organisms and/or their possible PGP traits may be discover proving useful tools in agriculture, bioremediation and biotechnology.

Would it be possible make Figures 2-7 bigger as font is very small?

Experiment is well designed and conduced. Bioinformatic and statistical tools allow to answer research question and draw conclusions.

Taking all above I found the manuscript well done and worth of publication.

Author Response

Thank you for your comments to us entitled "The Impact of Aboveground Epichloe Endophytic Fungi on the Rhizosphere Microbial Functions of the Host Melica transsilvanica" for insightful and constructive comments.   We appreciate the time and effort you have put into evaluating our work and are pleased to hear that you find this research interesting and valuable to the field of endophytes and their applications.

Your suggestion is to expand Figure 2-7 to improve readability.   We understand the importance of clear communication for readers' convenience and understanding.   We have revised the figures accordingly to ensure that the font size is appropriate and the details are legible.

In addition, we were pleased to hear that you thought the experimental design and use of bioinformatics and statistical tools were well executed.   The feedback has been particularly encouraging.

In view of your positive comments, we have made the following revisions to the manuscript:

Figure 2-7: We adjusted the layout to enhance the clarity of the graphics.   We believe these changes will significantly improve readability for readers.

Clarifications and corrections: We have also taken the opportunity to make minor clarifications and corrections throughout the manuscript to ensure the highest standards of accuracy and accuracy.

The revised manuscript has been uploaded to the review system, and we thank you again for your positive feedback and valuable comments on the manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Author,

I have an opportunity to review manuscript entitled: “The Impact of Aboveground Epichloë Endophytic Fungi on the Rhizosphere Microbial Functions of the Host Melica transsilvanica” submitted to Microorganisms MDPI Journal.

Authors analysed the impact of Epichloë endophytic fungi on the rhizosphere microbial functions of the host Melica transsilvanica. Moreover, the differences in microbial functional groups and functional genes in the rhizosphere soil between symbiotic (EI) and non-symbiotic (EF) plants were analyzed based on metagenomic method.

Results indicated that Epichloë altered the community structure of carbon and nitrogen cycling-related microbial populations in the host's rhizosphere. Moreover, significantly increasing the abundance of genes (porA, porG, IDH1) involved in the rTCA cycle of the carbon fixation pathway. In the contrary, it seems possible that Epichloë reduces the enrichment of virulence factors in the host rhizosphere microbiome. Furthermore, significantly increasing the accumulation of resistance genes against heavy metals such as Zn, Sb, and Pb were also noticed.

The introduction gives the reader sufficient background, but it should be finished by precise aim of the studies. I understand the Author’s intention, but I it should be clearly stated in the manuscript;

Figure 2 (A-C) should be enlarged because the reader lost important details; Figure 4 the same situation. Please, rethink to adjust this figure to the whole page;

Conclusion is like a repeated abstract. Please, rethink if this part add something new compared to other parts of the manuscript.

Please, correct some spell-errors. Citations after the sentence need ‘space’ adding.

I think interesting part of the discussion should be more information about the  Epichloë influence on plant -metal different tolerance levels as well as on physiological state of the plants like antioxidant levels, photosynthetic parameters, and hormone signaling. Especially then Authors try to conclude about new insight in plant-endophytic interaction effects.

Minor language correction is needed.

Author Response

Dear reviewer

Thank you for your detailed feedback on our manuscript.  We have carefully considered your comments and made the following changes to improve the clarity, accuracy and overall quality of our work.

We have revised the introduction to more accurately state the purpose of our study.

We have adjusted the size layout of all the images to ensure that all details are clearly visible.

Based on your suggestion, we have expanded the discussion of the section on endophytic fungi enhancing heavy metal tolerance in host plants。

We have rewritten the conclusion to distinguish it from the summary.

We have added Spaces after all text references to comply with standard formatting guidelines.  A thorough spell check has been carried out and all spelling errors have been corrected.

We believe these revisions meet your expectations and enhance the manuscript's contribution to the field.  We have attached the detailed revision details for your review, and the complete revised manuscript has been forwarded to the review system.

Thank you again for your constructive feedback.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx