Valorizing Traditional Greek Wheat Varieties: Phylogenetic Profile and Biochemical Analysis of Their Nutritional Value
, Spyros Didos 1,2, Ioanna Bouzouka 1,3, Athina Theodorakopoulou 4, Michael Kornaros 4, Ioannis Mylonas 5 and Anagnostis Argiriou 1,2,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsTitle: Valorizing Traditional Greek Wheat Varieties: Phylogenetic Profile and Biochemical Analysis of Their Nutritional Value
The work does not appear to be particularly innovative for topic covered, however it reveals a good appealing as it adds a piece to the controversial issue of ancient and modern grains.
According to the authors, who evaluated different species of ancient grains and modern varieties, the ancient varieties of einkorn and emmer have a higher concentration of bioactive compounds and the old varieties of durum and common wheat have a higher content of phenolic compounds.
There are some things that could be improved throughout the text, which however is quite well edite
2.1 It would be possible to have information on the climatic conditions, and location of this study?
3.2 The presentation of the results should be written better, specifying that in the figures barley, oat and rye are always presented as other cereals.
Why the individual data for these cereal species are not presented? They could be shown in supplementary table, also because in line 312 you talk about the antioxidant activity of oat without a reference to any table.
Figure relating to MUFAs should be moved after figures 7 and 8, and a comment should be made along the discussion.
The sentence from lines 372 and 375 should be written better, because according to some authors it is the free phenolic compounds that have greater bioaccessibility, (see for example Mateo Anson N, van den Berg R, Havenaar R, Bast A, Haenen GRMM. Bioavailability of ferulic acid is determined by its bioaccessibility. J Cereal Sci. 2009;49:296–300)
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Point 1: 2.1 It would be possible to have information on the climatic conditions, and location of this study?
Response 1: This information was added in L110 and table 2.
Point 2: 3.2 The presentation of the results should be written better, specifying that in the figures barley, oat and rye are always presented as other cereals.
Response 2: A sentence was added (L288) to clarify grouping.
Point 3: Why the individual data for these cereal species are not presented? They could be shown in supplementary table, also because in line 312 you talk about the antioxidant activity of oat without a reference to any table.
Response 3: A table with the values of all the samples is now provided as supplementary table 1, mentioned in L288, L315 and L324.
Point 4: Figure relating to MUFAs should be moved after figures 7 and 8, and a comment should be made along the discussion.
Response 4: We changed the order of the figures as suggested. We added a comment in the discussion, please see L405-415.
Point 5: The sentence from lines 372 and 375 should be written better, because according to some authors it is the free phenolic compounds that have greater bioaccessibility, (see for example Mateo Anson N, van den Berg R, Havenaar R, Bast A, Haenen GRMM. Bioavailability of ferulic acid is determined by its bioaccessibility. J Cereal Sci. 2009;49:296–300)
Response 5: The suggested reference was added (as reference 52) and discussed in L401-404. One more reference was added to support L397-401 (ref. 51).
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis study compared the grains of ancient Greek landraces of einkorn, emmer, durum, and common wheat with modern wheat cultivars, as well as barley, oats, and rye grains. The purpose was to examine their distinct genetic profiles and nutritional properties. The findings were highly informative and provided valuable insights for the advancement and breeding of superior crop varieties.
Before publication, a few enhancements need to be made.
Abstract:
L23-26 Please add some quantative descriptions in related results.
Keywords:
L30 Please re-consider the selection of keywords.
Introduction:
L75-L88 Please indicate the necessity to determination of polyphenols, flavonoids, antioxidants and fatty acid methyl esters.
L75-L88 Please highlight the breakthroughs achieved in this study and describe their implications for practical applications.
Results:
Through out this section, please mark the significance of the data variance.
Disscussion:
In this section, please discuss the possible connections between the genotype variations and contents of bioactive compounds.
Conclusion:
L401-405 Please highlight the implications of this study again.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageMinor editing of English language required.
Author Response
Point 1: Abstract L23-26. Please add some quantative descriptions in related results.
Response 1: Sadly, we couldn’t fit quantitate descriptions in a 200-word limit.
Point 2: Keywords L30. Please re-consider the selection of keywords.
Response 2: The keywords were re-evaluated and one more was added.
Point 3: Introduction L75-L88. Please indicate the necessity to determination of polyphenols, flavonoids, antioxidants and fatty acid methyl esters.
Response 3: A comment was added at L87-89.
Point 4: L75-L88. Please highlight the breakthroughs achieved in this study and describe their implications for practical applications.
Response 4: A comment was added at L92-101.
Point 5: Results. Through out this section, please mark the significance of the data variance.
Response 5: Please see L314, 323, 352.
Point 6: Disscussion. In this section, please discuss the possible connections between the genotype variations and contents of bioactive compounds.
Response 6: Please sell L439.
Point 7: Conclusion, L401-405. Please highlight the implications of this study again.
Response 7: Please see the revised conclusion section.
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe study "Valorizing Traditional Greek Wheat Varieties: Phylogenetic Profile and Biochemical Analysis of Their Nutritional Value" compares and contrasts a few cultivars and lines of each of three cultivated Triticum species for their nutritional quality traits along with other three cereal crops and reports that the traditional and landraces of emmer and einkorn species possess higher bound polyphenols, flavonoids, fatty acids and antioxidants than the common and durum wheat cultivars. There was no need to use ITS2 and SSR markers for genetic diversity analysis as all these Triticum species have already been thoroughly characterized. Anyway the use of molecular markers helped to know that there was genetic diversity among cultivars and lines within each group. The source, genome, and chromosome location of each of the SSR markers used in this study should be given in the Materials & Methods section.T. monococcum did not have any amplification of ITS2 sequence as the rDNA in common and emmer wheat are mapped on chromosomes 1B and 6B which are missing in T. monococcum. The higher bound and total contents of all the quality traits in emmer and einkorn landraces could be due to their smaller thousand-grain weight and larger aleurone layer areas where most of the nutritional traits are present. It will be better if the data on TGW is also recorded of all the lines and then correlated with the quality characteristics. It will be better if all the data on nutritional quality traits is given in one or more tables along with the statistical significance rather than in numerous figures. All the specific names should be in lowercase letters and italicized throughout the text and references.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
The manuscript has been written in reasonably good scientific English except for the scientific names of various species which should be in lowercase letters and italicized.
Author Response
Point 1: The source, genome, and chromosome location of each of the SSR markers used in this study should be given in the Materials & Methods section.
Response 1: This information was added in Table 3.
Point 2: T. monococcum did not have any amplification of ITS2 sequence as the rDNA in common and emmer wheat are mapped on chromosomes 1B and 6B which are missing in T. monococcum.
Response 2: I’m afraid I did not understand this comment. T. monococcum was amplified by ITS2 primers, as it can be seen in numerous other publications (like Gulbitti-Onarici et al., 2009, Ganopoulos et al., 2017) and NCBI records (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/?term=triticum%20monococcum%20its2).
Point 3: The higher bound and total contents of all the quality traits in emmer and einkorn landraces could be due to their smaller thousand-grain weight and larger aleurone layer areas where most of the nutritional traits are present. It will be better if the data on TGW is also recorded of all the lines and then correlated with the quality characteristics.
Response 3: This is a very valuable comment that we will use in future publications but, unfortunately, we did not measure the TGW for the samples used here.
Point 4: It will be better if all the data on nutritional quality traits is given in one or more tables along with the statistical significance rather than in numerous figures.
Response 4: A table with all the nutritional quality traits is now provided as supplementary table 1.
Point 5: All the specific names should be in lowercase letters and italicized throughout the text and references.
Response 5: We made the relevant changes throughout the text.
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear Authors, please find my comments and queries in the attached Ms. file.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
The overall presentation and grammar are satisfactory, and no specific issues were identified.
Author Response
Point 1: L17
Response 1: The words tetraploid and hexaploidy were deleted.
Point 2: L35
Response 2: I’m sorry for the inaccuracy, the manuscript was revised according to https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
Point 3: L40,
Response 3: A reference was added.
Point 4: L61
Response 4: the word ‘common’ was added.
Point 5: L97-100
Response 5: All genotypes (landraces, cultivars) were evaluated simultaneously. We changed section 2.1 in order to be clearer. Thank you for the comment.
Point 6: L102
Response 6: A relevant comment was added in the aim of the project, L95.
Yecora cultivar used in this study is different from Yecora rojo. It is a Greek selection of CIMMYT‘s variety Gecora 70. We changed the name to Yecora E (and accordingly Generoso to Generoso- E.
Point 7: L149
Response 7: These primers were chosen since they are well documented and used for relevant projects in our lab, thus their discrimination power had been tested. Reference was added.
Point 8: L183
Response 8: Information added.
Point 9: L209
Response 9: For the variance analysis was used GraphPad, San Diego, CA, USA.
Point 10: L245
Response 10: Reference deleted.
Point 11: L272
Response 11: The letters were corrected.
Point 12: L300
Response 12: Yes, DPPH radical scavenging activity.
Point 13: L309
Response 13: deleted.
Point 14: L322
Response 14: I’m afraid this link wasn’t working; I hope our response 6 covered this.
Point 15: L401
Response 15: we chose the word ‘ancient’ since emmer and einkorn appeared thousand years before the wheat varieties we typically consume nowadays (meaning common and durum).
