Fungal Melanins and Applications in Healthcare, Bioremediation and Industry
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Thank you for submitting an interesting and helpful manuscript on Fungal Melanins and Applications in Healthcare, Bioremediation and Industry. The analysis is well done, and some practical uses of melanotic fungi are listed very well. I strongly believe this topic is of interest to the readers during this late pandemic. Before making it published, I suggest the authors to address few typological errors and minor changes mentioned in the following
line 27: has to keep a full stop after [1].
line 36: provides
line 39: accompanies at
line 42: the citations [10] were repeated twice
line 80: typo should be"dihydroxyindoles"
line 93-100, under figure 2, all the scientific names of fungi should be italicized. Also, description for each one of the images should be separated by semicolon or it should come in the next line for easy understanding
line 177: it should be proposed
line 240: Lasiodiplodia theobromae should be italicized
line 249: spp., should be in italics . And typo on died, it should be "dyed"
Comments on citations:
Few references lack full information in the citations section. For example, ref 65 doesn't have the details of which year, volume, pages.
Ref 69, 28 lacks the same.
Check all the citations again to keep consistency.
I think you are on the right track to provide this manuscript to the readers at the right time. I congratulate the authors for their work.
Author Response
Reviewer 1:
Thank you for submitting an interesting and helpful manuscript on Fungal Melanins and Applications in Healthcare, Bioremediation and Industry. The analysis is well done, and some practical uses of melanotic fungi are listed very well. I strongly believe this topic is of interest to the readers during this late pandemic. Before making it published, I suggest the authors to address few typological errors and minor changes mentioned in the following
line 27: has to keep a full stop after [1].
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly.
line 36: provides
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
line 39: accompanies at
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
line 42: the citations [10] were repeated twice
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
line 80: typo should be "dihydroxyindoles"
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
line 93-100, under figure 2, all the scientific names of fungi should be italicized. Also, description for each one of the images should be separated by semicolon or it should come in the next line for easy understanding
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
line 177: it should be proposed
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
line 240: Lasiodiplodia theobromae should be italicized
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
line 249: spp., should be in italics . And typo on died, it should be "dyed"
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
Comments on citations:
Few references lack full information in the citations section. For example, ref 65 doesn't have the details of which year, volume, pages.
Ref 69, 28 lacks the same.
Check all the citations again to keep consistency.
Response: Accept
Action taken on revision: Changed accordingly
I think you are on the right track to provide this manuscript to the readers at the right time. I congratulate the authors for their work.
Response: The authors would like to extend their genuine gratitude for the kind and constructive comments from this reviewer.
Reviewer 2 Report
A broad but well rounded review of fungal melanins. The literature hit all major areas and had some interesting sub-discussions. The writing is solid and engaging. I see no major issues.
- line 28: ultraviolet shouldn't be capitalized
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
General comments
This is a new review on melanin written by a group with expertise in fungal melanin. I think the review is interesting and useful for melanin researchers, as it covers some aspects that had not been discussed in previous similar reviews and focused to 3 important fields (Health, Bioremediation and Industry). The review indicates some peculiar properties of melanin that are not in other reviews. Among these peculiar aspects (potential vehicle to protect astronauts from space radiation or absorber of nerve gas, some of them are difficult to believe, and they should be discussed or assessed in addition to the mere citation. For instance, it is hard to believe the conclusion of ref. 43 (lines 137-138, mice fed with black mushrooms Auricularia auricila-judae tended to survive the effects of irradiation better than the control. I have some doubts about the conclusion cited as ref. 51 by own experiments (line 170). Authors should include some comments about these conclusions. At least, I suggest mentioning that further experiments are needed about that extraordinary melanin effects.
On the other hand, it is good to see that the methods to extract fungal melanin are improved, as mentioned at lines 125-126. However, bacterial melanins are obtained also with high efficiency, and synthetic melanin can be easily synthesized. Some comments about the comparison and advantages of fungal melanins versus bacterial or synthetic melanin would be helpful.
Particular comment
Concerning Section 2, Fungal Melanins and Figure 1
Some fungi, such as the edible Agaricus bisporus, are able to form a structurally different type of melanin that could be considered related to dopa-melanin (or allomelanin depending of the used criteria) but they are not usually considered in previous reviews. This is also the case of the current manuscript. They are related to Gamma-glutaminyl-4-hydroxybenzene (GHB). You can find information about that in some original papers (i.e. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fgb.2012.10.004) or melanin reviews (i.e. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/498276). As this type of melanin is missing in this review, Figure 1 could be considered not completed. I think that it would be an improvement to include it, as this is a new review focused to fungal melanins. Agaricus bisporus is interesting for health rahter than bioremediation or industry.
Minor points
Line 80: replace dihydoxyindoles by dihydroxyindoles
Please, complete reference 28
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
Excellent reply to reviewers and brilliant and informative modifications. As the authors write in the reply cover letter, I also think that the paper has been improved. Some points have been clarified and completed.
