Altered Cytostructure and Lignolytic Enzymes of Ganoderma boninense in Response to Phenolic Compounds

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)

Comments to the previous version of the manuscript have been corrected and eliminated. The manuscript has been revised and can be published.

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 1)

The manuscript has been adequately improved, and could be considered for publication.

Revise for minor spelling mistakes.

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article describes the study of several phenolic compounds as a potential means of controlling the occurrence of Basal Stem Rot (BSR) in oil palm. The influence of these compounds on the ligninolytic enzymes profile and the mycelial morphology has been assessed, and the observed phenomena have been reflected upon.

The topic is valuable, and the experimental design seems adequate. Results discussion is sound and supported by suitable bibliographic references. The experimental methods are explained in detail and statistical analysis of the results is included.

The article could be considered for publication, provided that some details are improved:

1. I suggest deleting the ":" (punctuation mark, colon) from the title

2. A space must be left between numbers and units (please revise the whole text, this is a recurrent error)

3. The unit for liter must be the same throughout the text (both L and l are used)

4. Give centrifugation speed in RCF (G) preferably (have a look at line 137, "at 1792 RCF 4000 rpm")

5. Verify the use of superscripts in units (e.g. correct this in line 153)

6. Write down the definition of enzyme unit for each analyzed enzyme

7. Figure 1: the photo for THY 0.1 appears to be abnormally dark

7. Figures 2 and 4: rethink and improve format and captions, because they are difficult to understand

8. Figure 3: improve image quality, it is difficult to see the discussed differences, particularley on RBBR dye experiments

9. SEM and HR-TEM results: relate and clearly differentiate these results to those reported in your previous article

Ganapathy D., Siddiqui Y., Ahmad K., Adzmi F., Ling K.L.  Alterations in mycelial morphology and flow cytometry assessment of membrane integrity of ganoderma boninense stressed by phenolic compounds (2021) Biology, 10 (9), art. no. 930. DOI: 10.3390/biology10090930

10. An abbreviation list should be included

Some spelling and grammar errors must be corrected, by instance:

- Line 27, "...the efficacy of phenolic compounds in treating vanquish Ganoderma":  the expression "treating vanquish" does not make sense

- Line 37, "Malaysian biodiversity is jeopardy...": a preposition is missing here

- Line 41, "BSR spread...": a final "s" is missing in the verb

... and so on.

Please check the whole manuscript for errors.

Reviewer 2 Report

In the study, you write that phenolic compounds are a good alternative to chemical fungicides. But aren't the phenolic compounds you use also chemistry with their own toxicity?!

In your study, a model experiment was conducted. How do you plan to carry out the treatment in the fields? Is it economically feasible considering the availability and wide range of fungicides? What are the advantages over commercial agrochemicals? What is the rationale for choosing phenolic compounds and the concentrations used? From which manufacturers? And what is the purity qualification?

 78-80: Who is the supplier of reagents? What is the purity grade of the reagents?

85-86: What does "actively growing" mean? Provide more specific characteristics of the inoculum. Describe how this inoculum was obtained.

87-89: Why were these concentrations specifically chosen?

95-96, 108-110, 119-122: Who is the supplier of the nutrient medium components?

144: In which cases was plain distilled water used, and in which cases was a medium without phenolic compounds used?

147: Was the enzyme inactivated?

151, 160: Manufacturer and model of the spectrometer?

The results in Tables 1 and 2 raise doubts due to high values of error and their repeatability.

 The description in the Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), High resolution-transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) sections, as well as the presented photos, are almost identical to those published in a previous work by Ganapathy D, Siddiqui Y, Ahmad K, Adzmi F, Ling KL. Alterations in Mycelial Morphology and Flow Cytometry Assessment of Membrane Integrity of Ganoderma boninense Stressed by Phenolic Compounds. Biology (Basel). 2021 Sep 18;10(9):930. doi: 10.3390/biology10090930. PMID: 34571807; PMCID: PMC8468247. This leads me to reject the publication of the article in its current form and urge the authors to revise the article and resubmit it.