Untargeted Metabolomics Unveil Changes in Autotrophic and Mixotrophic Galdieria sulphuraria Exposed to High-Light Intensity
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In this work Liu and coworkers examined the metabolism of Galdieria sulphuraria in 4 different conditions using physiological and metabolomics studies.
The study seems well executed and the authors uncover useful insights on how the algal metabolism adapts to different growth conditions. I therefore recommend this work for publication.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Point 1: In this work Liu and coworkers examined the metabolism of Galdieria sulphuraria in 4 different conditions using physiological and metabolomics studies. The study seems well executed and the authors uncover useful insights on how the algal metabolism adapts to different growth conditions. I therefore recommend this work for publication.
Response 1: Dear Reviewer, we strongly appreciate all your constructive comments and thank you for recommending our manuscript for publication. Spelling and grammar mistakes in the manuscript have been double-checked, all corrections have been highlighted using the "Track Changes" from Word.
Reviewer 2 Report
To my best knowledge, It is a very interesting paper that merit publication in the Journal. An addition of a photosynthetic mechanism estimation assessment through chlorophyll-a fluorescence could further increase the value of this state of the art scientific work.
I suggest adding in the legend of the Figure 1 explanation about +/_ intervals and number of replication.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Point 1: An addition of a photosynthetic mechanism estimation assessment through chlorophyll-a fluorescence could further increase the value of this state of the art scientific work.
Response 1:Dear Reviewer, we strongly appreciate all your constructive comments and thank you for recommending our manuscript for publication. In this study, we employed flow cytometry to measure the relative contents of chlorophyll (Chl) and phycobilins (PC), the primary absorbing pigment present in the light-harvesting complex of red algae Galdieria sulphuraria. Chlorophyll a is the dominant photosynthetic pigment, and chlorophyll b is present in a few species. As reported in the literature, photosystem (PS) I (Chl a/b) of Galdieria sulphuraria is similar to those ingreen algae, and PSII contains phycobilisomes as the primary PSII contains light-harvesting antenna protein. Thus, as suggested , it would be very constructive to further assess the chlorophyll a fluorescence. However, to be scientifically accurate, we would have to repeat the entire metabolomic experiment (demanding a considerable amount of time and resources) and use those cells to measure the chlorophyll-a fluorescence. We appreciate the constructive suggestion and have estimated to apply this assessment in further experiments.
Point 2: I suggest adding in the legend of the Figure 1 explanation about +/_ intervals and number of replication.
Response 2: The following sentence have been added in the legend of Figure 1: “Error bars indicate the standard deviation (n=6).”
