Selection of Suitable Genotypes of Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) under Rainfed Conditions in South Italy Using Multi-Trait Stability Index (MTSI)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The topic is relevant and original. However, the study is more a statistical-based than an agronomic one (e.g., only crop yield data per season is provided, not specifically for each genotype; the same for seeds quality; no relation of climatic data and seasonal growth is described). Nevertheless, overall results are interesting, although a more detailed information is recommended for future studies.

Results are not appropriately addressed, and an improvement is recommended.

Discussion requires an improvement. Results are not sufficiently discussed. For instance, only frost was discussed, not the drought that occurred in the first season when  the amount of rainfall was about the half amount of other two seasons and the 43-yr period, and authors demonstrated as a dry season (DI=4).

Conclusions: authors should avoid the use of abbreviations and symbols.

Specific comments:

Authors should replace "content" by "concentration" throughout the text and tables.

-L48: improve the sentence giving some information on the N2 fixing capacity of lentil

-L88, L309: authors should replace "chickpea" for "lentil"

-L126: instead of "t ha-1" express data on "g m-2" preferably because plots used were small (1m2)

-L133: "combination of year and location": do you mean "genotypes" instead of location?

-L134: "three environments": do you mean "seasons"?

-L153: why only protein contentration was used in PCA?

-L178; add "..., except the 3rd year"

-L183: describe briefly the plant growth phases, and relate to climatic data

-L212: "both the 1st and 2nd growing seasons have more or less the same climatic conditions": this is not true concerning the drought condition the the 1st season

-L215: "G5, G9": I could not see such result

-L266: "SY, AGB and THS": what about statistical significance? Explain the relevance to present this data.

-L300: "protein content, protein yield" both variables are redundant. Only one should be used

-L308, L310, L312, L313: how can we see the fact mentioned in this section?

-L328: "protein yield had a positive significant correlation with AGB": this is obvious because both variables are redundant. The same for L329.  I could not found data in Table 6 so relevant, therefore I recommend to present it as Supplementary Material, or, preferably, delete.

-L339: add "enriches them with nutrients and organic matter"

-L340: "so much so that 2016 was the international year dedicated to it": this is not exactly true. 2016 was the "Year of pluses", not "year of lentil". Improve or delete.

-L346: "phenotypic information": what do you mean? I could not find it.

-L363: "G2, G10, G12": this is not reflected in PCA (Fig. 3). Please verify.

-L373/374: this is not true.

-Table 2: footnote: replace "column" by "row"

-Table 3: add a legend for abbreviations

-Tables 3 and 4: these informations are not so relevant. I would recommend to present both tables as Supplementary Material.

-Figure 3: add "...PCA on lentil ACB,..."

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you indeed for reviewing the manuscript.

I have uploaded my answers to your valuable comments.

My coauthor and I hope the manuscript amelioration is sufficient for acceptance.

Kind regards.

Mohamed houssemeddine Sellami

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

In the manuscript “ Selection of Suitable Genotypes of Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) Under Rainfed Conditions in South Italy Using Multi- Trait Stability Index (MTSI)« authors Mohamed Houssemeddine Sellami, Pulvento Cataldo and Antonella Lavini dentified the stable accession of lentil for cultivation in South Italy under varied environmental conditions using MTSI indices and evaluated the quality parameters of 13 lentil accessions over three consecutive years.

Abstract

Key words

OK

Introduction

Is informative, concise, with the appropriate literature cited.

Materials and Methods

L 66 con-tent; write content

L 88 Three-year-long screening trials on chickpea were conducted in Vitulazio… chickpea???

L 94 Some references are written in bold and some not

Results

Table 2: SY = seed yield; AGB = above ground biomass; HI = harvest index and THS = 1000 seed weight. Means followed by the same letter in each column are not significantly different according to the Tukey’s test (P = 0.05). Really in each column???

L 309 On the contrary, Group 2 chickpea accessions had the highest value of protein yield… chickpea???

C  L316 chickpea accessions chickpea???

It is sometimes hard to follow so many abbreviations

Discussion

L 358 ma-jority of plant…Write majority

I suggest writing more concrete data in the discussion section and discussion with the literature data and explanations.

Conclusions

OK

The idea of MS is interesting and the results are clearly presented. I want to highlight the clear and comprehensive work of the authors. The methods employed are explained, and the results are consistent with the purposes.

My suggestions: minor revision

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you indeed for reviewing the manuscript.

I have uploaded my answers to your valuable comments.

My coauthor and I hope the manuscript amelioration is sufficient for acceptance.

Kind regards.

Mohamed houssemeddine Sellami

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Authors improved the manuscript following most Reviewer's comments. 

Nevetheless, some minor issues have been found, as follows:

- I would recommend authors to avoid the use of abbreviations in the Discussion section.

-L15/16: please write: "various factors that have detrimental effects..."

-L22/23: please delete: "environmental and"

-L53: write: "to reduce"

-L54: write: "the soil fertility"

-L104: please replace the deleted sentence: "during three growing..."

-L246/247: please improve the sentence and correct SY for g m-2

-L446: complete the sentence

-L465: please add a brief explanation for selected parameters: yield stability, yield potential, yield (or seed) quality

-L474: please delete "which"

-L485/486: which are the two previous seasons? Please, correct.

-L502: write: "In terms"

-L527: delete: "analysis"

-L529: delete: "concentration" or "percentages"

-L532: write: "As well as". Do you mean "seed quality"?