Arginine Methyltransferase PeRmtC Regulates Development and Pathogenicity of Penicillium expansum via Mediating Key Genes in Conidiation and Secondary Metabolism

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and edits incorporated in the manuscript

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Point: English language and style are fine/minor spell check required.

Response: Thank you for your reminder and suggestion. We have revised the corresponding contents (marked in bold) in order according to your good suggestions and listed them as follows:

1. “…the most aggressive Penicillium species” has been changed to “…one of the most aggressive Penicillium species”.
2. The second sentence of the introduction has been changed to “It causes blue mold rot in…”.
3. The third sentence of the introduction has been changed to “ expansum produces patulin - a potential carcinogenic mycotoxin, that contaminates infected fruits and their derived products, giving rise to food safety concerns”.
4. “Even though numbers of regulatory and virulence factors…” has been changed to “Several regulatory and virulence factors…”.
5. The importance of post-translational modifications and protein modifying enzymes has been added, namely “…few studies refer to post-translational modifications and protein modifying enzymes that functionally diversify the proteome and are involved in the regulation of gene expression”.
6. The word “posttranslational” has been changed to “post-translational”.
7. The word “The” in “The study aimed to identify PRMT homologies …” has been replaced by “This”.
8. “Moreover, we further proved the action mode of PeRmtC…” has been changed to “We further showed the action mode of PeRmtC…”.
9. “The primers were list…” has been changed to “The primers are listed…”.
10. “An aliquot of XXX conidia mL^-1 conidial suspensions …” has been changed to “An aliquot of XXX conidia mL^-1 suspension…”.
11. “after cultured” has been changed to “after being cultured”.
12. “homologies” has been changed to “homologs”.
13. The word “relative” in “…PeRmtA and PeRmtB (relative high similarity) has been changed to “relatively”.
14. “development” in “These results indicated that among the four PRMTs, PeRmtC plays a more important role in the development of expansum” has been changed to “conidiation”.
15. The word “Therefore” in “Therefore, deletion of PeRmtC delayed conidial germination…” has been changed to “These results indicate that”.
16. “…PeRmtC is required for full virulence of expansum on host fruits” has been changed to “PeRmtC is involved in the virulence of P. expansum on host fruits”.
17. The word “germinant” in “When conidia begin to germinant into invasive hyphae…” has been changed to “germinate”.
18. The word “broadened” has been changed to “broaden”.

Reviewer 2 Report

I find the manuscript interesting, well written and with nice grafics. In figure 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 information of replicates is not included.

Author Response

Point: In figure 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 information of replicates is not included.

Response: Thank you for your good suggestion. The experiments in figure 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were performed with three biological replicates and we have added the information to the legend in figure 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, respectively.