Applications and Prospects of CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Base Editing in Plant Breeding

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The current manuscript is written nicely and covers all the aspects of base editing in plants. The authors have explained various base editors such as CBEs  ABEs, CGBEs. Moreover, they also covered recent applications of base editing technology in the agricultural fields with respect to crop yield, quality, disease, and herbicide resistance. Subsequently, the authors have also covered the challenges and future prospectus of Base editing technology.

However, there are several errors in the papers.

# Abstract: Lines: 20 to 23, font and size are different.

# Authors should also include how base editing works, I mean the base editing window in the gRNA, after the PAM site what is the specific location where base editors will act and perform base changes? if the authors explain it with the cartoon figure will further improve the quality of the manuscript. This information is important and missing in the current paper.

# Line 162-163: It's not clear which trait is beneficial for the prevention of diabetes and obesity.

# Line 186 to 190: explain more about Target-AID, it is not mentioned whether it works in conjunction with nCas9.

Author Response

Dear reviewers, please find attached the response.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Overall, the topic is critical and important in plant breeding research. It covers the contribution as well as the limitation of CRISPR BEs. The insights are deep and meaningful. The applications were mostly explained in the major crops. Probably need to discuss more the difficulties in the applications of some crops that have very fundamental research. 

Author Response

Pease see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors,

Abstract

Line 12 and 31 remove the commas of Clustered, ....

Line 12 add ...asscociated protein 9 system...

Line 16 remove " via conventional" and use "by"

Remove all  (BEs)

Line 17 please change " Base editing allow precise single-nucleotide changes in the geneome in the absence of double-strand breaks (DSBs) and donor repair templates (DRTs)"

Line 23-26 poor English and  re-write please the aim of the work

Introduction

Line 31  " The Clustered..."

Line 34 Please remove "CRISPR/Cas9 has become..."

Please modify the Introduction  adding a separate chapter for BASE EDITING, after explanation of  CRISPR/Cas9 system

Author Response

Dear reviewers,please find attached the response.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx