Proteomics Computational Analyses Suggest that the Envelope Glycoproteins of Segmented Jingmen Flavi-Like Viruses Are Class II Viral Fusion Proteins (β-Penetrenes) with Mucin-Like Domains

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Flavi-like viruses have been discovered in  a number of different insects and may cause febrile illness in humans.The authors describe how the computational analysis on protein sequences of flavi-like glycoproteins identified structural features  indicating that these proteins are class II fusion proteins. In addition, the analysis revealed that there is an evolutionary link between unsegmented and segment RNA viruses.  These type of studies demonstrate that computational analyses can be a powerful tool for studying the protein structure/functions although methods such as X-ray crystallography will be needed to confirm the results.

Line 45, 53: Change "flys" to "flies"

Line 188: "closely relate than to the Jingmen..." - remove "than"

Line 188: remove extra space  after "NS3"

Author Response

Many thanks to the reviewer for the helpful comments.

We improved the Methods section as suggested. 

We made the following corrections:

Line 45, 53: Change "flys" to "flies"

Line 188: "closely relate than to the Jingmen..." - remove "than"

Line 188: remove extra space  after "NS3"

Reviewer 2 Report

I enjoyed reviewing this paper.  You guys did an excellent job providing background information and relating your findings to flaviviruses.

We need data such as you've presented to help us better understand these emerging pathogens.

Author Response

We very much appreciate the reviewer's comments.