Microbial Metabolomics Interaction and Ecological Challenges of Trichoderma Species as Biocontrol Inoculant in Crop Rhizosphere

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Review Remarks:

Microbial Metabolomics Interaction and Ecological Challenges of a Biocontrol Inoculant in Crop Rhizosphere with Special Reference to Trichoderma Species

The manuscript has compiled and processed significant information on Trichoderma and its interaction with rhizospheric microbiome and biocontrol of pathogenic microbes. Overall, the presentation of this manuscript is up to the mark and in brief.  

In this work, the authors tried distinctly to depict the effect of the metabolomic compounds secreted by different Trichoderma species on soil microbiome and outlined the ecological challenges of Trichoderma as a biocontrol/biofertilizer inoculant in crop rhizosphere.

The manuscript could be a good piece of information for the journal as possess the merit for publication but only after consider following points for revision:

Major comment

Trichoderma is one of the popularly explored organism for biocontrol of pathogenic organism in agriculture. A lot of works has been done in this regard and it has also been used for several commercial formulations. A sub-section on that sums up the strategies for efficient and effective utilization of the potential of Trichoderma a critical discussion on the available commercial products would be an interesting angle to explore in this manuscript. Recent papers should be discussed.  

Minor comments:

The followings are some general points and scientific queries needed to be addressed in the manuscript:

• italicize all scientific names of the organism
• use any uniform variant such as: or sp. or species in the entire manuscript
• Kindly check the spacing and fonts of the references section
• Several typographical/ spelling errors are observed across the manuscript
• Improve the resolution of figure, probably .tiff format would be best
• Please re-summarize the concluding remarks again to provide a concrete and accurate overview of the work.
• Authors may include these recent papers: doi: 10.3390/biology10080791; doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13252-7

Author Response

Comments from Reviewer 1:

Microbial Metabolomics Interaction and Ecological Challenges of a Biocontrol Inoculant in Crop Rhizosphere with Special Reference to Trichoderma Species The manuscript has compiled and processed significant information on Trichoderma and its interaction with rhizospheric microbiome and biocontrol of pathogenic microbes. Overall, the presentation of this manuscript is up to the mark and in brief. In this work, the authors tried distinctly to depict the effect of the metabolomic compounds secreted by different Trichoderma species on soil microbiome and outlined the ecological challenges of Trichoderma as a biocontrol/biofertilizer inoculant in crop rhizosphere. The manuscript could be a good piece of information for the journal as possess the merit for publication but only after consider following points for revision.

 

Authors’ Response: Thank you so much for your valuable remarks.

 

Major comment: Trichoderma is one of the popularly explored organism for biocontrol of pathogenic organism in agriculture. A lot of works has been done in this regard and it has also been used for several commercial formulations. A sub-section on that sums up the strategies for efficient and effective utilization of the potential of Trichoderma a critical discussion on the available commercial products would be an interesting angle to explore in this manuscript. Recent papers should be discussed.  

 

Authors’ Response: L95-126: A sub-section as 2. Trichoderma species as a commercial biofungicide is added. Several bioformulation of Trichoderma are included in table 1 (Line 128). Recent papers (Ref: 27, 28, 31, 33) have been discussed.

 

Minor comments:

The followings are some general points and scientific queries needed to be addressed in the manuscript:

 

Comment: Italicize all scientific names of the organism.

Authors’ Response: All scientific names have been italicized. Thank you.

 

Comment: Use any uniform variant such as: or sp. or species in the entire manuscript.

Authors’ Response: We have used “species” as a uniform variant throughout the manuscript. Thank you.

 

Comment: Kindly check the spacing and fonts of the references section. Thank you.

 

Authors’ Response:  Spacing and fonts of the reference section have been checked.

 

Comment: Several typographical/spelling errors are observed across the manuscript.

Response: Typographical/spelling errors have been checked across the manuscript. Thank you.

 

 

Comment: Improve the resolution of figure, probably tiff format would be best.

Authors’ Response:  Resolution of figure has been improved and tiff format was used. Thank you.

 

Comment: Please re-summarize the concluding remarks again to provide a concrete and accurate overview of the work.

Authors’ Response:  We have worked on our conclusion and improved towards accuracy of the outlook of manuscript. Thank you.

 

Comment: Authors may include these recent papers: doi: 10.3390/biology10080791; doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13252-7.

Authors’ Response: These two articles have been cited. Ref: 110 (Line 330) & 112 (Line 350).

 

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is a well-structured and well-documented (102 references) review. I can only say congratulations to the work team for their work

 

Author Response

Comments from Reviewer 2:

 

The paper is a well-structured and well-documented (102 references) review. I can only say congratulations to the work team for their work.

 

Authors’ Response: Thank you so much for the kind recognition and inspiring remarks for this valuable review.

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper title "Microbial Metabolomics Interaction and Ecological Challenges of a Biocontrol Inoculant in Crop Rhizosphere – with Special Reference to Trichoderma Species" by Saleh Ahmed Shahriar et al. submitted to agronomy reviewed the effect of the metabolomic compounds secreted by different Trichoderma species on pathogenic and non-pathogenic soil microbial communities and outlined the ecological challenges of Trichoderma as a biocontrol/biofertilizer inoculant in crop rhizosphere. Overall, it is well suited for the journal scope and could be interesting to many readers. Indeed, this review is also important especially when more and more studies have revealed the worldwide application of Trichoderma species as biocontrol agents. The organization of the manuscript is good and clear. However, I still have a few questions & suggestions here.

 

1. please check the italic font of Trichoderma throughout the whole manuscript, including title.

 

2. I would suggest the author to change the title directly using Trichoderma, instead of as a reference stated here. It would be more suited for the main topic of the manuscript.

 

3. Abstract: Try to shorten the introduction words (Lines 26-35) and then extend the summary part of your review point (Lines 35-39).

 

4. It would be good to add ‘rhizosphere’ or ‘crop rhizosphere’ as one of the keywords.

 

5. Lines 110-117: It is not clear stated how Trichoderma interacts with these harmful root exudates. If you mentioned the weakness, then would be good to review the mechanism a bit. There is a lack of reference in Lines 113-115.

 

6. Lines 164, and 173-189: It is interesting to see that authors considered the effects on non-pathogenic fungal communities. It indeed could be a high-cited part of this manuscript since most studies concerning the effects on pathogenic ones. However, I found authors used a whole paragraph to indicate the possible effects of secondary metabolites secreted by Trichoderma on plant defense or growth. Why?

 

7. Lines 286-302: Could be good to integrate the most recently published paper here from Chen et al. 2022.

Reference: Chen, C., Wang, M., Zhu, J. et al. Long-term effect of epigenetic modification in plant–microbe interactions: modification of DNA methylation induced by plant growth-promoting bacteria mediates promotion process. Microbiome 10, 36 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-022-01236-9

Author Response

Comments from Reviewer 3:

 

The paper title "Microbial Metabolomics Interaction and Ecological Challenges of a Biocontrol Inoculant in Crop Rhizosphere – with Special Reference to Trichoderma Species" by Saleh Ahmed Shahriar et al. submitted to agronomy reviewed the effect of the metabolomic compounds secreted by different Trichoderma species on pathogenic and non-pathogenic soil microbial communities and outlined the ecological challenges of Trichoderma as a biocontrol/biofertilizer inoculant in crop rhizosphere. Overall, it is well suited for the journal scope and could be interesting to many readers. Indeed, this review is also important especially when more and more studies have revealed the worldwide application of Trichoderma species as biocontrol agents. The organization of the manuscript is good and clear. However, I still have a few questions & suggestions here.

 

Comment: Please check the italic font of Trichoderma throughout the whole manuscript, including title.

Authors’ Response:  The italic font of Trichoderma has been checked throughout the manuscript.

 

Comment: I would suggest the author to change the title directly using Trichoderma, instead of as a reference stated here. It would be more suited for the main topic of the manuscript.

Authors’ Response:  Trichoderma has been directly used in title as per comment. The new title is - Microbial Metabolomics Interaction and Ecological Challenges of Trichoderma Species as a Biocontrol Inoculant in Crop Rhizosphere.

 

Comment: Abstract: Try to shorten the introduction words (Lines 26-35) and then extend the summary part of your review point (Lines 35-39).

Authors’ Response:   Your concerns have been addressed please see the changes in the abstract (line 29-45).

 

Comment: It would be good to add ‘rhizosphere’ or ‘crop rhizosphere’ as one of the keywords.

Authors’ Response:  ‘crop rhizosphere’ has been added as a keyword.

 

Comments: (Lines 110-117)- It is not clear stated how Trichoderma interacts with these harmful root exudates. If you mentioned the weakness, then would be good to review the mechanism a bit.

Authors’ Response:  Lines (145-151) are revised and according to reviewer comments, the mechanisms that Trichoderma used to defend those harmful exudates, are included.

 

Comment: There is a lack of reference in Lines 113-115.

Authors’ Response:  Lines 161-165, references have been added. See the Ref: 45-47.

 

Comment: Lines 164, and 173-189: It is interesting to see that authors considered the effects on non-pathogenic fungal communities. It indeed could be a high-cited part of this manuscript since most studies concerning the effects on pathogenic ones. However, I found authors used a whole paragraph to indicate the possible effects of secondary metabolites secreted by Trichoderma on plant defense or growth. Why?

 

Authors’ Response: Thank you so much for this suggestions. We changed this paragraph and added a few references related to the effect of metabolites on soil microbial communities. Please see the lines (209-224).

Comment-Lines 286-302: Could be good to integrate the most recently published paper here from Chen et al. 2022. Reference: Chen, C., Wang, M., Zhu, J. et al. Long-term effect of epigenetic modification in plant–microbe interactions: modification of DNA methylation induced by plant growth-promoting bacteria mediates promotion process. Microbiome 10, 36 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-022-01236-9

Authors’ Response: The above mentioned reference is added. See the Ref: 119.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The revision done is appreciated, however a few minor corrections are yet to be done. 

• Please use the abbreviation of AMF correctly, it is written as AM fungi, however the abbreviation mentioned is AMF ( it has never been used)
• Section 2: Several scientific names are mentioned in Bold.
• Line 249-262: Italicized the scientific names
• Add a column in the table 1 for references and provide respective reference information

Author Response

The details of the responses are listed below:

 

The amendments are highlighted in green marks in the original manuscript.

The revision done is appreciated, however a few minor corrections are yet to be done. 

Authors’ Response: Thank you so much for the kind recognition and inspiring remarks for this valuable review.

 

Comment: Please use the abbreviation of AMF correctly, it is written as AM fungi, however the abbreviation mentioned is AMF ( it has never been used).

Authors’ Response: “AM fungi” has been written instead of “AMF”.

 

Comment: Section 2: Several scientific names are mentioned in Bold.

Authors’ Response: The scientific names have been corrected in normal font.

 

Comment: Line 249-262: Italicize the scientific names.

Authors’ Response: All of the scientific names have been Italicized.

 

Comment: Add a column in the table 1 for references and provide respective reference information.

Authors’ Response: Column with respective references has been added in table 1. Thank you for the valuable additions.