Potential of Temperate, Tropical, and Sub-Tropical Exotic Maize Germplasm for Increased Gains in Yield Performance in Sub-Tropical Breeding Programs
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript is poorly put together. For example, what is the point of table 3? There are no conclusions. Abbreviations aren't spelled out the first time that they are used. Figure 2 doesn't show any type of relationship between the two traits. This may be because you are testing for different stresses at different locations. Please lay out the figures and tables similar to you references.
There are only minor changes required for the quality of the English Language.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
May you please see our responses on the attached file.
Kind regards,
Dr Kamutando
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript described the utilization of exotic germplasm for maize breeding of Zimbabwe. The maize lines and the field trails are sound. However, the presentation and description of main text and the tables needs to be improved, and the figures are not clear enough. It must be overall revised completely before it suitable for publication.
(1) The title needs to be modified to have a detail information.
(2) Lane7-8, the superscript 2 was absent of marks on authors.
(3) Lane 21-22, the mean of the sentence is not clear.
(4) The overall Introduction has to add the enough references of the previous studies on exotic maize germplasm utilization.
(5) Methodology parts may not be mixed some data from Results.
(6) The caption for table 2 is not clear, which may be changed as "Geographic and climatic condition of the tested maize growing region in Zimbabwe"
(7) The text in Figure 1 is not clear.
(8) The Discussion part should be expanded to compare the present study with another relevant studies, before making the conclusion in detail for maize improvement in Zimbabwe.
The English language need to be improved by expert of native speakers.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
May you kindly see our responses on the attached document.
Kind regards,
Dr Kamutando
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear,
Congratulations on the work done, however, small details should be corrected in the text and are highlighted in the attached document.
Carefully
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your comments. May you please see our responses on the attached documents.
Kind regards,
Dr Kamutando
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
There are minor spelling errors and the misuse of words in the text.
Please change "were" to "where" in the title of table 2.
Reviewer 2 Report
The revised version of the manuscript has been largely improved. It is suitable for publication with minor changes.
1. The reference list will be modified according to the instruction for the manuscript submission.
2. Overall the scientific name of species must be italic, such as the Zea Mays in references.
3. The references No. 34 and No 37 are duplicated, which must be corrected.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for going through our manuscript for the second time and for your valued feedback! We have addressed all the minor issues that you raised.
Thank you ones again!
Regards,
Dr Kamutando
