Insight into the Complex Genetic Relationship of Chinese Fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.) Advanced Parent Trees Based on SSR and SNP Datasets

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors used SSR- and SNP-based technologies, together with pedigree records to elucidate genetic relationship among the selected trees, and estimate their genetic variation in Chinese fir. There is substantial interest in implementing combination of pedigree and molecular information to comprehensively clarify the genetic relatedness of selected individuals with complex pedigree relationship in the current Chinese fir breeding program. Some revisions are required. The specific points are as follows:

 Line18 Substitute the word ‘marker-induced’ for the word ‘marker-derived’.

 Line44-45 Delete ‘resulting from’ or ‘because of’.

 Line125 Instead of ‘0.5 µL reverse 10 µmol/L primer’, please alter to ‘0.5 µL 10 µmol/L reverse primer’

 Line128-129 This sentence should be improved by supplementing more information of PCR amplified procedure.

 Line146 ‘identified by’ instead of ‘identified from’.

 Line 231-232 The ADMIXTURE analyses are fine but the authors should present the results for more values of K. For example, instead of just describing K=3, the authors should describe K=2 and 4. This can assist in interpreting the results and is easy to include.

50 individuass from the third generation seed orchard were selected according to their growth, seed characteristics and anthrax resistance, but no specific genetic gain was listed.

Author Response

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the reviewer for the critical and constructive comments. We have addressed the comments raised by the reviewer point-by-point, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

In this work the authors applied pedigree records, SSR- and SNP-based datasets to elucidate genetic relationship of an advanced parent tree population with complex pedigree relationship in Chinese fir. In general the MS is very well written, the methodology used is appropriate, and the results are very well exposed. Here, I have some suggestions that the authors could consider before the final version of the MS will be acceptable. I hope that my suggestions help to the authors to improve their work.

1. Figure 2 It is necessary to improve the resolution of the figure. Furthermore, you should explain the meaning of the axes in the figure caption.

2. In the result section, the authors provided K=2 and 4 in figure 5B, however, nothing was mentioned about that. I suggest some comments following the sentence (L231-232) on the data interpolation here.

3. There are several minor corrections as following:

Lines 44-45 Delete ‘resulting from’ or ‘because of’.

Line 125 ‘0.5 µL 10 µmol/L reverse primer’ instead of ‘0.5 µL reverse 10 µmol/L primer’.

Lines 172-175 Please provide the references.

Author Response

Thank you for your constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered the suggestion of the Reviewer and make some changes. We have addressed the comments raised by the reviewer point-by-point, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors,
I would like to commend the idea for the manuscript and find it very useful in practice. What I would like to add to this paper are recommendations for future breeding programs and how to use the existing information and results of this research in the breeding of Chinese fir.

Finally, for all these reasons, I think that the manuscript should undergo a minor revision before reaching publication standard.

You could find comments in a word document.

Kind regards.

Comments for author File: Comments.docx

Author Response

We would like to thank you for your careful reading, helpful comments, and constructive suggestions, which has significantly improved the presentation of our manuscript. We have addressed the comments raised by the reviewer point-by-point, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

The authors used SSRs and SNPs in Chinese fir to implement in comprehensive clarification of the genetic 17 relatedness of a complex advanced parent tree population which provides an important input for progress of Chinese fir high-generation breeding.

Overall, there is some interesting results presented here, however there are some concerns need to be further considered.

Major comments

1.The introduction and discussion need to be expanded widely not just focused on China.

Minor comments

1.       Figure1 need to be improved to make more readable.

2.       The writing needs to be revised and improved.

Author Response

We would like to thank you for your valuable comments in this review, which have greatly improved the readability of the manuscript. We have addressed the comments raised by the reviewer point-by-point, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 5 Report

The paper gives new and interesting findings that can be very useful for future Chinese fir breeding programs. The presented methodological appraoch can also be applied to other species to determine the genetic patterns.

The title is appropriate and informative. The topic is original and the obtained results will fill the gap concerning the use of C. lanceolata genetic resources, and show possibilities of using molecular markers for the population’s genetic structure determination.

The introduction summarizes current knowledge and identifies gaps; also, the reason for conducting this research is clearly formulated. The methods are appropriate, and clearly described. The results are comprehensively reported and mostly supported by figures and tables which are helpful for the understanding of the findings.

The conclusions drawn are in accordance with the presented arguments and provide answers to the questions raised.

References are used correctly.

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for reading our paper carefully and giving the above positive comments.

Reviewer 6 Report

The manuscript presents insights about Chinese fir breeding capacity which were derived from SSR and SNP markers. The manuscripts needs English editing as in many parts it is not easy to understand.

I have some comments but needs also more editing

Line 17: correct instead of “information is for the first time to implement” with “was for the first time being implemented for clarification of the genetic….”

Line 19: correct “were significant correlation” with “were significant correlated with SNPs”

Line 39-41: rewrite the whole sentence

Line 63: add properties in the end of the sentence

Line 70: correct is afforestation no forestation

Line 92: erase the last sentence

Line 249: correct as “In the present study, combination of pedigree and molecular information was for the first time implemented in order to clarify genetic relatedness among breeding materials in Chinese fir.”

Line 257 correct as “were significant correlated”

Author Response

We are grateful for your valuable comments in this review, which have significantly improved the readability of the manuscript. We have addressed the comments raised by the reviewer point-by-point, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 6 Report

The manuscript was corrected according to my suggestions and it is now suitable for publish.