Phytophthora Root Rot: Importance of the Disease, Current and Novel Methods of Control
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
As a major agricultural pathogen, Phytophthora sojae can cause significant yield losses for cultivated soybean each year. Since the effect of traditional breeding and chemical fungicides is not ideal, novel strategies are therefore required among which are the use of biological control agents (BCAs), especially for microorganisms or their metabolites. Totally, this review addresses the P. sojae - soybean interaction, the mechanisms of pathogenicity and host resistance, current and new management strategies with emphasis on biological control of P. sojae and the associated mechanisms. I think the manuscript was well organized and of great importance which might attract readers’ attention. Minor points: 1. The writing format in References part needs to be more standardized. The journal name whether Italic or not need to be consistent. And also, the Latin italics. For example, Line 463 Phytophthora Sojae, Line 475, Line 479 and so on. Meanwhile, except for the first letter and proper noun, the letter did not need to be capitalized. 2. For Table1, I think either the background color or the annotation of author and year of the articles need to be changed since they got similar grey color. 3. The key words need to be in alphabetical order. 4. The English writing needs to be improved.
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for the positive comments on the paper. Only minor modifications were requested. They were all taken into consideration as follows:
- The writing format in References part needs to be more standardized. The journal name whether Italic or not need to be consistent. And also, the Latin italics. For example, Line 463 Phytophthora Sojae, Line 475, Line 479 and so on. Meanwhile, except for the first letter and proper noun, the letter did not need to be capitalized.
Answer: We agree with these remarks. They were all taken into consideration in the novel manuscript.
- For Table 1, I think either the background color or the annotation of author and year of the articles need to be changed since they got similar grey color.
Answer: 2. For Table 1. The color of annotation of the author was changed for a better contrast.
- The key words need to be in alphabetical order.
Answer: We agree. The keywords were ordered alphabetically.
- The English writing needs to be improved.
Answer: the paper was reviewed by an English native
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have done a great job and summarized a large amount of research on root rot. This is an interesting article, but I want to make a few comments:
- The title of the article contains the word "biocontrol", but the text deals not only with biological methods of combating rot, but also with chemical and agronomic methods. In my opinion, it is necessary to change the title of the review.
- The second section of the review is called (BIO-)CONTROL STRATEGIES OF PHYTOPHTHORA ROOT ROT, but in it the authors talk about chemical control and agronomic practices. Can chemical control and agronomic practices be considered as biocontrol?
- The review pays little attention to the practical application of BCAs. The authors describe mainly various laboratory studies. Is there any data on the practical application of BCAs in soybean crops in real conditions?
- What is known about the possible negative consequences of the use of BCAs?
- The CONCLUDING REMARKS AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES section could be improved.
I indicated other comments in the text of the article in the attached file.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for the positive comments on the paper. All the suggestions were taken into consideration in the novel manuscript as follows:
- The title of the article contains the word "biocontrol", but the text deals not only with biological methods of combating rot, but also with chemical and agronomic methods.
Answer: We appreciate this remark and agree with the reviewer that we should change the title of the article. The new title is: PHYTOPHTHORA ROOT ROT: IMPORTANCE OF THE DISEASE, CURRENT AND NOVEL METHODS OF CONTROL
- The second section of the review is called (BIO-)CONTROL STRATEGIES OF PHYTOPHTHORA ROOT ROT, but in it the authors talk about chemical control and agronomic practices. Can chemical control and agronomic practices be considered as biocontrol?
Answer: We agree and modified the title as follows “CONTROL STRATEGIES OF PHYTOPHTHORA ROOT ROT” to include all the control methods
- The review pays little attention to the practical application of BCAs. The authors describe mainly various laboratory studies. Is there any data on the practical application of BCAs in soybean crops in real conditions?
Answer: A paragraph about evaluating the BCAs impact in the rhizosphere community in soybean crops in real conditions was added (lines 4294-436).
- What is known about the possible negative consequences of the use of BCAs?
Answer: we wrote a small paragraph in the concluding remark pointing the possible limitations/ drawbacks of BCAs (lines 448 – 453)
- The CONCLUDING REMARKS AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES section could be improved.
Answer: The CONCLUDING REMARKS AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES section was improved (line 454-460).
- I indicated other comments in the text of the article in the attached file.
Answer: We checked and accepted the comments of reviewer in the text of the article in the attached file:
line 46-48: In this point we add the reasons why chemical control is difficult, as requested by the reviewer
Line 76: In this point we edit the sentence: take out potato disease to correct the redundancy
Line 156-163: The sentence has been corrected for better understanding.
