The Stem-Loop I of Senecavirus A IRES Is Essential for Cap-Independent Translation Activity and Virus Recovery
, Jiabao Shi 1, Chen Li 1,‡, Xinran Liu 2,§, Junhao Fan 1, Chao Sun 1, Craig E. Cameron 3, Hong Qi 4,* and Li Yu 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript was well written, the experiments were well-conducted, the description of the results is clear, and the discussion section clearly describes the results and limitations. I have no significant comments on this work.
I have only two minor comments.
It is not clear that Figure 1 A represents In silico predictions of the RNA secondary structure of the SVA IRES and the HCV. Figure legend has a different description.
I think the authors can increase the figure quality.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This is an interesting manuscript describing a genetic engineering studies on Senecavirus A causing vesicular disease in swine. The authors confirmed the similarity of IRES region to other viruses represented by hepatitis C virus (HCV). Having a genetically modified variants of Senecavirus the authors revealed that chimeric SVA virus harboring the IRES from HCV, H-SVA, is viable and replicated normally in rodent-derived BHK-21 cells but showed replication defects in porcine-derived ST cells. The authors showed that the stem-loop I of SVA is an essential element for IRES-dependent translation and viral replication.
I would strongly suggest to limit the overuse of personal form throughout the entire manuscript. Probably it would be possible to introduce non-personal form: 'it has been found' or 'the results showed' instead of "we showed" etc.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
