A Time to Sow, a Time to Reap: Modifications to Biological and Economic Rhythms in Southwest Asian Plant and Animal Domestication

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article is well reasoned and well written. My only suggestion is to make mention in the problem orientation/introduction of other important techniques and crops of domesticates such as vegeculture, arboriculture as they complement or contrast with the species covered in this paper.

Author Response

Reviewer 1 - Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article is well reasoned and well written. My only suggestion is to make mention in the problem orientation/introduction of other important techniques and crops of domesticates such as vegeculture, arboriculture as they complement or contrast with the species covered in this paper.

Author Response:

We thank Reviewer 1 for their encouraging review. We added in a few sentences in the introduction further addressing the article’s focus on specific cereal crops and livestock, as opposed to other categories, such as arboriculture.

Reviewer 2 Report

Fuks et al. have provided a good review focusing on the important aspects of lifecycle temporality in southwest Asian plant and animal domestication which have contributed to the economic success of the ‘Neolithic package’. They have suggested domestication as a model for the study of globalization. The manuscript is well written and most of the relevant aspects have been thoroughly explored. The manuscript is OK in its present form. However, I would suggest authors add a few lines about the novelty of this manuscript in the abstract. Authors’ contribution has not been given in the manuscript, it should be added.

Author Response

Reviewer 2 - Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Fuks et al. have provided a good review focusing on the important aspects of lifecycle temporality in southwest Asian plant and animal domestication which have contributed to the economic success of the ‘Neolithic package’. They have suggested domestication as a model for the study of globalization. The manuscript is well written and most of the relevant aspects have been thoroughly explored. The manuscript is OK in its present form. However, I would suggest authors add a few lines about the novelty of this manuscript in the abstract. Authors’ contribution has not been given in the manuscript, it should be added

Author Response:

We thank Reviewer 2 for their positive review. We have modified the abstract to make the paper’s novel contribution clearer. We also added in author contributions after the Acknowledgments section.

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a thoughtful and nuanced analysis of the effects of domestication on seasonality in the crops and animals at the centre of SW Asian agricultural origins. Throughout, close attention is given to explaining the terms and processes involved, both in the centre of origin, and as the domesticates spread. It has two useful functions: as a review of the impact of recent work in genetics and ecology on our understanding of the processes and results of domestication, and as a discussion of how these changes enable us to build a bigger picture of how domestication underpins globalisation. These are big topics, but clear organisation and writing lead the reader through these. I have only minor suggestions for changes:

118. This section on germination points to moisture as the key factor affecting timing. Unmentioned is the large literature on vernalisation, i.e. the requirement for a cold period before germination (this is discussed later, but only with respect to flowering). A discussion of this would be useful, even if the authors in fact consider it irrelevant. 

There are some easily-fixed issues with formatting: Figure 1 caption is garbled; journal titles in the bibliography are very inconsistent; the text on animals is less polished than that on plants, especially 445-459.

177: Could cross refer to figure 1

203. Could reference the nice paper by Borojevic doi:10.1093/jhered/esi060

302. sown and germinate*d*

373, 448. Incomplete reference

452-5. Unclear sentence

Author Response

Reviewer 3 - Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a thoughtful and nuanced analysis of the effects of domestication on seasonality in the crops and animals at the centre of SW Asian agricultural origins. Throughout, close attention is given to explaining the terms and processes involved, both in the centre of origin, and as the domesticates spread. It has two useful functions: as a review of the impact of recent work in genetics and ecology on our understanding of the processes and results of domestication, and as a discussion of how these changes enable us to build a bigger picture of how domestication underpins globalisation. These are big topics, but clear organisation and writing lead the reader through these. I have only minor suggestions for changes:

Author Response:

We are very grateful for Reviewer 3’s helpful review and have adopted/responded to the points raised:

118. This section on germination points to moisture as the key factor affecting timing. Unmentioned is the large literature on vernalisation, i.e. the requirement for a cold period before germination (this is discussed later, but only with respect to flowering). A discussion of this would be useful, even if the authors in fact consider it irrelevant. 

We are only aware of vernalization requirement after germination, as discussed in the MS. In any case, in the context of domestication, wild cereal progenitors usually germinate in the autumn while the average temperatures are typically +10 C so adaptation to cold conditions pre-germination is irrelevant.

There are some easily-fixed issues with formatting: Figure 1 caption is garbled; journal titles in the bibliography are very inconsistent; the text on animals is less polished than that on plants, especially 445-459.

By some technical error, the version received by Reviewer 3 was not the final version at the time of submission. The livestock section, among others was unfinished, and several of the issues identified result from this submission error. In any case, in the current version these issues have been fixed.

177: Could cross refer to figure 1

We feel that figure 1 does not demonstrate this point.

203. Could reference the nice paper by Borojevic doi:10.1093/jhered/esi060

We thank Reviewer 3 for this excellent suggestion and have incorporated the reference in a short summary of the Rht genes’ historical trajectory.

302. sown and germinate*d*

Change incorporated.

373, 448. Incomplete reference

Fixed in the updated version.

452-5. Unclear sentence

Fixed in the updated version.