Assessment of the Rhizosphere Bacterial Community under Maize Growth Using Various Agricultural Technologies with Biomodified Mineral Fertilizers

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (New Reviewer)

Please refer to attachment

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

The language requires some revision.

Author Response

See attached file

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report (New Reviewer)

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

See attached file

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report (New Reviewer)

I think the authors made detailed and substantial revisions to the manuscript that improved its quality. In my opinion, the manuscript is acceptable for publication.

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 paper purports to be an evaluation of the effects of the addition of a PGPR strain to a fertilizer mix on the rhizosphere microflora and yield of maize, using a new method approach of a fractal bioconsolidation index. However, the authors provide little information on the actual field experiment (either in methodology or results) and devote most of the focus purely on the methodology and application of the fractal bioconsolidation index approach. Thus, this does not work at all as a paper describing and assessing the effects of the interaction of this PGPR with the microflora, but is essentially a methods paper. However, it is not fully developed as a methods paper either, and so is not successful there either, because neither does it clearly describe and explain just what the meaning and significance of the approach is, nor does it provide any context or evaluation of the methodology relative to the type of information derived from other existing methods of evaluating rhizosphere microflora. That is, there is no indication of how this approach relates or compares to other approaches (does it provide similar or corresponding results to other methods, or can it provide new info above and beyond that of other approaches?). The authors need to decide what type of paper this needs to be (for advancing info and knowledge regarding effects of PGPR on microflora and plants, or a methods paper presenting fractal bioconsolidation as a viable new approach for assessing changes in microflora), as the current paper tries to be both at once and fails on both fronts. For these and other reasons, this paper is not ready for publication, and cannot be fixed with minor-moderate revision. However, appropriate major revision resulting in a completely new paper with clear purpose and focus, and with inclusion of additional new data, could produce a paper acceptable for publication and a worthy contribution to the literature in this area.

I have made numerous comments on the attached edited version of the manuscript. Again, for a research paper on effects of the PGPR addition, the materials and methods are severely lacking. Much additional information on experimental design, methodology, and statistical analyses are needed.  And actual experimental results of the field experiment are needed throughout, not just presentation of the fractal applications and conversions (microflora analyzed by trophic groups, as well as full amplicon sequence analyses (OTUs), yet results from these analyses are not presented, except as interpreted by fractal bioconsolidation).  There are several limitations that undermine the effectiveness and relevance of the paper as written and a complete re-organization and re-write are needed.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

In this study, the authors conducted two sets of experiments in order to  assess the impact of B.velezensis BS89 as a component of biomodified mineral fertlizer on the rhizosphere microflora and field of maize plants. Then the data were processed using a fractal analysis, and then these data were used, in a meta-analysis manner, to generate an index of fractal bioconsolidation of rhizosphere microflora.

Although it is an interesting set of experiments, the experimental st up suffer and it is vaguely described.

1. The whole genome sequencing of B. velezensis BS89 has been presented in a previous publication, and it is again presented in the submitted paper (Lines 119-132) in a copy paste fashion.
2. The authors should explain in detail why they selected this bacterial strain for their studies.
3. The authors claim that they use B. velezensis BS89 spores for their experiments. How they prepare the spores, what was the concentation of spores in the inoculum, what was the survival of the bacterium in soil at the different stages. 
4. PDA is an unsual medium for bacillus culture
5. Experimental details concerning maize growth and  crop yield are not present. Nevertheless the authors they discuss these data (Lines 302-305).
6. Physico-chemical characteristics of the soil are not presented.
7. It is not clear whether the authors isolated culturable bacteria, and then tested each one to which trophic group belongs or they plated the whole population on the prper 'trophic' medium. They did not discuss whether the same isolate may belong to two or three trophic groups.
8. Line 172. it is not clear how the abundance of trophic groups in each experiment is calculated. The dominant trophic groups are diffent in C1, E1 and E2.
9. Line 173. t/ha 
10. Line 198.  define gOTU
11. Line 208. gOTE replace with gOTU
12. Line 204. Provide some information about the gOTU (e.g. proteobacteria).
13. There is a general problem with literature cited by the authors. It is hard to find some papers even in the Google scholar.
14. The literature should be updated and corrected (Line 368-369).
15. They authors should explain in detail what they mean by the term  'index of fractal bioconsolidation of the rhizosphere' and how this index is used in their studies.
16. The authors should explain in detail how the mathematical model is applied and can be used by others. 

 

 

 

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments to the Author

            The manuscript on “Effect of PGPR Bacillus velezensis BS89, as a Component of Biomodified Mineral Fertilizers, on Rhizosphere Microflora and Yield of Maize with the Help of Fractal Bioconsolidation Index of Rhizosphere Microflora”. Authors have studied fractal bioconsolidation of the rhizosphere microflora. The study provides an integrated fertilizer application along with PGPR Bacillus velezensis BS89 to modern sustainable agriculture. The manuscript can be accepted with minor revision.

Corrections:-

• Line 35 MPB
• Line 42 fertilizers
• Line 198 gOTUs
• Line 205 gOTUmax
• Line 256 coordinates; according
• Line 292 index was obtained to 0.54 and 0.65.
• Line 296 experiments
• Table 2. No. of gOTU
• Discussion is short needs more information with existing research knowledge.
• References need to be checked.