Oil Palm Inflorescence Sex Ratio and Fruit Set Assessment in dura × pisifera Biparental Progenies on Fibric Peat Soil

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article describes the assessment of ISR and FS in different progenies of hybrid oil palm species planted on fibric peat soil. It includes detailed agronomic traits and correlation analyses, however, there are key points that need to be addressed/ commented on before considering it for publication.

1. The future economical merit of this study on breeding or other agronomic traits is missed either in the abstract or in conclusion.
2. The hypothesis is clearly stated in the introduction section, but it's hard to find whether it was accepted or rejected from the result/discussion section. It needs a clear presentation for diverse reeaders.
3. Based on the statement of the problem (declining oil yield, value and exports), how this study result (knowing the ISR and FS status from these progenies) could help in resolving the stated problem? please discuss by citing any related reference following the key results.
4. Given environmental (seasonal) effects detected in this study, a single field trial may not provide conclusive results, which is the major concern of this article. How difficult to repeat the study? Are you confident to recommend this single season result for breeders?
5. As a future study, molecular approaches are potential suggested tools to complement this study. could you please specify what type of molecular approach is suitable for such kind of study?
6. I found that the legends of figures and tables are not self-explanatory. Figures and tables should be independent of the text, detailing with brief findings. please revise it..
7. A lot of results (6 tables and 8 figures) are presented, which is bulky and could demotivate readers. I would encourage the authors to keep a few selected figures and tables with the self-explanatory legends in the body. Others can be moved to supplementary files. 
8. By keeping a few results (as stated Q7 above) and focus more on the discussion which is lacking in most of the results. You may consider answering why/how these results observed from the specific progenies. Are there any related studies from related plant species or in planta in general...?  
9. Please double-check the whole manuscript writing  up, such as italics (e.g., line 80), incomplete sentences (e.g., lines 84-86)

Author Response

All comments and suggestions, including their corresponding responses are addressed in the attachment. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

In order to obtain the lines with high yield potential of oil palm, the inflorescence sex ration (ISR) and fruit set (FS )performance of 24 D (dura)* P (pisifera) biparental progenies were documented in this study. Data collection, correlation analysis, and variance of genetic heterogeneity were examined.

The results indicated that a decline in fruit set ratio was influenced by inflorescence sex ratio among 24 D×P progenies. There was a noticeable influence through the environmental effect among the biparental progenies than genetic variance. The ISR had moderate heritability and low phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variations, and FSR had high heritability. Correlation indicated that the influence of ISR highly depended on female flower and fruit set had greater influenced by fertile fruit. The outstanding performance of progeny PK4674 due to its good ISR, and Deli Banting × AVROS and Angola × AVROS in FSR achievement, could be used in future breeding programs.

Basically, the overall merit is good. However, two major concerns were indicated below for your reference. First, please separate the parts of Result and Discussion for more readability. Also, improve the academic logic/potential of a substantial discussion rather than just providing descriptive or comparative statements. Second, I wonder how environmental factors affect sex expression of oil palm. Oil palm is a monoecious plant and an immense environmental influence was indicated in your study by finding the phenotypic variation in the mean of traits (Table 4). If it is possible to regulate sex ratio/expression in either male cluster for donation of pollen or female cluster for fruiting potential by environment control or practice in due course? Please explain.

Author Response

All comments and suggestions are addressed in the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf