Need help in correct sentence structure

[crussell]

I believe something is wrong with this sentence structure--can you assist me? Thanks.

Synthesis of DNA was inhibited in bell pepper, yellow squash, collard, blackeyed peas, and pumpkin, by CO, in blackeyed peas, spinach and pumpkin by SO2 and in bell pepper, blackeyed pea and spinach by NO2 treatments.

Should there be semicolons after CO and SO2?

[Anglika]

I would delete the commas before and after "and pumpkin", and insert one after SO2. It reads fine otherwise.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by crussell

I believe something is wrong with this sentence structure--can you assist me? Thanks.

Synthesis of DNA was inhibited in bell pepper, yellow squash, collard, blackeyed peas, and pumpkin, by CO, in blackeyed peas, spinach and pumpkin by SO2 and in bell pepper, blackeyed pea and spinach by NO2 treatments.

Should there be semicolons after CO and SO2?

There is much variation in the way punctuation is used. I disagree with Angliks about the comma before "and Pumpkin". That comma is called the Oxford comma (look it up on Google) and I always use it. It is not wrong to take it out, but its omission can lead to confusion in some cases.

You have lists within lists here. When you have items separated by commas in multiple lists, use a semicolon to separate the lists from each other.

Synthesis of DNA was inhibited in bell pepper, yellow squash, collard,
black-eyed peas, and pumpkin by CO treatments; in black-eyed peas, spinach, and pumpkin by SO2; and in bell pepper, black-eyed peas, and spinach by NO2.

I have also hyphenated "blackeyed" and have used treatments in your first rather than your last list. Alternatively, you could leave out "treatments" altogether.