We thank the reviewer for drawing this study to our attention. We have added a paragraph to the discussion to compare and contrast the Sukenik work with that presented here. The Sukenik data support a strong positive correlation between 1/tau and the RUBISCO to PSU ratio over a series of growth irradiances. While we also see a strong positive correlation between 1/tau and RUBISCO to PSII our results differ as the molar ratios of the components of the PSU differ significantly between the strains analyzed in the current work. This allows us to pinpoint the relationship of PSII to RUBISCO rather than other subunits of the PSU as the determinant of electron transport rate.
Figure 4 – The crunch of this paper is Figure 4e which show the Rubisco:PSII ratio is correlated to ETR. While I’m convinced in the presented data only three data-points are shown – I’m most convinced in that this same relationship is presented in in “Aquatic Photosynthesis (edition 2) Figure 7.9 – Falkowski” based on work of Sukenik (1986?). A greater discussion should be given in the text to how these datasets compare and what is significantly new in this dataset? References 35 and 36 are discussed in relation to the potential control of cytb6f on limiting electron transfer from PSII but more should be made of Falkowski’s observations which support this data.