Towards Heat Tolerant Runner Bean (Phaseolus coccineus L.) by Utilizing Plant Genetic Resources
, Eveline Adam 3, Philipp von Gehren 1, Karin Hansel-Hohl 2, Noémie Prat 1 and Alexandra Ribarits 1,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments. Agronomy-1601965
Towards heat tolerant runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus L.) by utilizing plant genetic resources
Svenja Bomers , Eva M. Sehr , Eveline Adam , Philipp von Gehren , Karin Hansel-Hohl , Noémie Prat , Alexandra Ribarits
With respect to published works on heat stress-tolerant plants in general and beans in particular, which genes and respective proteins are important for breeding a heat-tolerant crop?
This information will help in the selective breeding of plants
Minor issues:
Introduction
Reduce the text to 33% its present length.
Most of the information is not very relevant at present.
Materials and Methods
Item 2.3. Glasshouse trials and phenotyping is very lengthy
Present only the important points. Reduce the text
A flow diagram can represent the information in a better manner.
Item 2.4. Leaf sampling and DNA extraction
Describe briefly and cite a relevant Reference only
Item 2.5. RAD sequencing and data analysis
Describe briefly and cite a relevant Reference only
Item 2.6. Phylogeny and ancestry matrix
Describe briefly and cite a relevant Reference only
Item 2.7, 2.8, and 2.9.
Describe briefly and cite a relevant Reference only
Table 2. can be presented as Supplementary Material.
Discussion
Please reduce it to20% it’s present size.
References
Restrict to 35 References, preferably those cited during 2016-2022.
Author Response
R: Reviewer’s comments
A: Authors’ reply
R: With respect to published works on heat stress-tolerant plants in general and beans in particular, which genes and respective proteins are important for breeding a heat-tolerant crop?
This information will help in the selective breeding of plants
A: We thank the reviewer for this relevant question. Indeed, the breeding of a heat-tolerant crop is a complex task and much effort has been dedicated to elucidate the key mechanisms and genes contributing to heat tolerance, also in beans. Many different genes have been attributed to heat tolerance and, in the present paper, we have highlighted some of them in the chapter “Molecular markers for runner bean breeding”. We describe those genes that we have identified in our screen and thus are likely of relevance in runner bean. As indicated in the chapter we have identified no particular papers describing heat tolerance in runner bean, so to the best of our knowledge there has been no published analysis specifically on this species. However, we have checked the relevant literature on heat stress tolerance in common bean. The data taken into consideration is compiled in the supplementary material (cf. Table S2). Unfortunately, ten SNPs described in the literature to be associated to heat stress tolerance in common bean did not work in the MassARRAY® design process (4 SNPs) or were monomorphic (6 SNPs). We have thus decided to not describe them in detail as we believe that comprehensive reviews on stress tolerance are available to the interested reader, some of which are also cited in our manuscript.
R: Minor issues:
Introduction
R: Reduce the text to 33% its present length.
Most of the information is not very relevant at present.
A: We have streamlined the text and cross-checked with the relevant messages in the manuscript to avoid information that is not essential.
R: Materials and Methods
R: Item 2.3. Glasshouse trials and phenotyping is very lengthy
Present only the important points. Reduce the text
A flow diagram can represent the information in a better manner.
A: We agree with the reviewer’s comment. We thus have shortened the text and removed details that are not important to understand the experimental setup. We also thank the reviewer for the suggestion to add a flow diagram. As the aim of Figure 1 is to present the experimental setup in a concise manner, we refrained from adding an additional flow diagram to avoid redundancy.
R: Item 2.4. Leaf sampling and DNA extraction
Describe briefly and cite a relevant Reference only
A: The text was adapted following the reviewer’s request – please refer to the changes in the manuscript.
R: Item 2.5. RAD sequencing and data analysis
Describe briefly and cite a relevant Reference only
A: The text was adapted following the reviewer’s request – please refer to the changes in the manuscript.
R: Item 2.6. Phylogeny and ancestry matrix
Describe briefly and cite a relevant Reference only
A: In this chapter, we prefer to keep the information as we think that it is relevant to the interested reader; in our opinion, it contains the essential information and is of adequate length.
R: Item 2.7, 2.8, and 2.9.
Describe briefly and cite a relevant Reference only
A: Thank you for the suggestion, which we considered carefully. We have adapted chapter 2.8 as suggested by the reviewer. Concerning chapters 2.7 and 2.9, we have come to the conclusion that all information is relevant and thus prefer not to change these chapters.
R: Table 2. can be presented as Supplementary Material.
A: Thank you for this comment, which we have also taken into careful consideration. We concluded that this table presents some of the major results of our study, namely the SNPs (and related information) that might be used for the estimation of heat tolerance in runner bean. We would therefore prefer to keep this information in the main manuscript, as we are convinced that most of the readers would like to see this information directly in the paper without referring to the supplementary material. Our discussion also revealed that some of the information might be too specific for the reader interested in runner bean breeding and might require additional information, which on the other hand would extend the text. In respect of the reviewer’s wish to shorten the manuscript, we have therefore removed both blast score and e-value from the table, and explained the relevance of the information contained in the table.
R: Discussion
Please reduce it to 20% it’s present size.
A: Thank you for your comment – we went through the Discussion to remove all information that is not relevant or that is redundant and streamlined the text. Please refer to the adapted shorter version.
R: References
Restrict to 35 References, preferably those cited during 2016-2022.
A: The authors would rather not support a restriction of references by the year of publication, as we found that in runner bean also older literature is relevant. We have reduced the number of references during the revision and shortening process but kept all references that in our opinion are relevant.
Reviewer 2 Report
The current study represents the first steps towards breeding heat-tolerant runner beans, which are necessary given the changing climate. For this purpose, they identified heat-tolerant accessions that could be used as crossing partners. These findings can speed up the development of new runner bean lines and make it less labor-intensive than it would be possible with purely conventional breeding methods. Some minor issues need to be addressed.
- Line 15-23, these lines comprise background information; however, the results have not been properly discussed in the abstract. Thus, please consider improving the later part of the abstract.
- Line 167, the unit style should be g L-1. Follow the same style in the whole MS.
- The authors have cited more review articles than research articles in the reference list. Thus, the references need to be updated to improve the arguments in the discussion.
- Proofread the whole text for language errors.
Author Response
R: Reviewer’s comments
A: Authors’ reply
R: The current study represents the first steps towards breeding heat-tolerant runner beans, which are necessary given the changing climate. For this purpose, they identified heat-tolerant accessions that could be used as crossing partners. These findings can speed up the development of new runner bean lines and make it less labor-intensive than it would be possible with purely conventional breeding methods. Some minor issues need to be addressed.
R: 1. Line 15-23, these lines comprise background information; however, the results have not been properly discussed in the abstract. Thus, please consider improving the later part of the abstract.
A: We thank the reviewer for the valuable comment and have changed the abstract accordingly.
- 2. Line 167, the unit style should be g L-1. Follow the same style in the whole MS.
A: Thanks for pointing this out; the suggested changes were made.
R: 3. The authors have cited more review articles than research articles in the reference list. Thus, the references need to be updated to improve the arguments in the discussion.
A: We would like to mention that the literature specifically related to runner bean is limited, thus it was necessary to include review articles. Following a reviewer’s suggestion, we reduced the number of references.
R: 4. Proofread the whole text for language errors.
A: We followed the reviewer’s recommendation and arranged proofreading of the manuscript.
Reviewer 3 Report
Authors report assessment in evaluating and selecting heat tolerant runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus L.). The genetic assessments are done well, but it could be better described by adding phenotype photos of such heat tolerant lines besides the the tolerance score data.
Table displays can be improved in elaborating the explanation more on the title and abbreviations.
Author Response
R: Reviewer’s comments
A: Authors’ reply
R: Authors report assessment in evaluating and selecting heat tolerant runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus L.). The genetic assessments are done well, but it could be better described by adding phenotype photos of such heat tolerant lines besides the tolerance score data.
A: We thank the reviewer for the suggestion and added phenotype photos. They may be found as Table S5 in the Supplementary material.
R: Table displays can be improved in elaborating the explanation more on the title and abbreviations.
A: The authors agree with the reviewer’s comment and have adapted the table explanations accordingly.
