The Origin of Spanish Durum Wheat and Olive Tree Landraces Based on Genetic Structure Analysis and Historical Records

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces based on genetic structure analysis and historical records

Abstract

write some digits results of population structure. molecular marker results in terms of population structure.
  

Introduction

Add more molecular studies

Methodology

Add more analysis of genetic diversity or population structure in recent years.

Add the results of few recent most publications.

Conclusions

Ok

Reference:

keep in form, in the main body of publication

and at the end of publication.

In general

It is better to separate wheat from Olive, make separate publications.  

write complete name of crop throughout the publication like Olive Tree or simply olive fruit.

Improve English. 

Improve English. 

Author Response

Submitted to Agronomy: The origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces based on genetic structure analysis and historical records

Reviewer 1

The origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces based on genetic structure analysis and historical records 

Abstract

write some digits results of population structure. molecular marker results in terms of population structure.

I wrote some numbers in the abstract. It is not easy as it is a review paper.

Introduction

Add more molecular studies

More molecular studies are difficult to find, but perhaps explain a bit more the studies we mentioned in the article is interesting. This is what has been done.

Methodology

Add more analysis of genetic diversity or population structure in recent years. 

Add the results of few recent most publications.

Yes, I added the results of the most recent publications in durum wheat and olive tree.

Conclusions

Ok

Thank you.

Reference:

keep in form, in the main body of publication

and at the end of publication.

Ok, thank you, I did that. I applied the MDPI format to the article.

In general

It is better to separate wheat from Olive, make separate publications.

The general idea (although it seems contradictory) of the paper is to join both crops, so different but so linked to the history of agriculture in the south and east of Spain.

write complete name of crop throughout the publication like Olive Tree or simply olive fruit.

Olive Tree is mentioned 41 times throughout the manuscript. I rather prefer to write the abbreviation OT as it has been done with durum wheat (DW).

Improve English.

The article has been subjected to an English review by a professional English editing company.

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript of the review “The origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces based on genetic structure analysis and historical records” represents a new approach for understanding the distribution of domesticated plants (durum wheat and olive trees) by combining genetic and historical data. This approach allowed the authors to get new information of geographical origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces. Also, a developed approach can be applied to other crop species to determine their origin and distribution. The manuscript is well written and is very interesting for the broad range of researchers.

There are only few small questions and suggestions:

1. The quality of all figures should be improved because of the low resolution of presented pictures. It is almost impossible to read legends.

2. Perhaps, it is better to include some parts of conclusions in the abstract to emphasize the importance of the review.

3. It is not well clear why these phrases were included at the end of chapter 3.1. They are not well connected to the previous text:

The cultivation of DW (along with bread wheat) arrived in America 228
from Spain at the beginning of the 16th century. The first reference is from 1529 in the 229
Dominican Republic, followed by Mexico in 1522 and Argentina in 1527 [7].

4. line 369: “... in situ and their seeds in ex situ collections.” Terms in situ, and in ex situ are usually written in Italic.

Author Response

Submitted to Agronomy: The origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces based on genetic structure analysis and historical records

Reviewer 2

The manuscript of the review “The origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces based on genetic structure analysis and historical records” represents a new approach for understanding the distribution of domesticated plants (durum wheat and olive trees) by combining genetic and historical data. This approach allowed the authors to get new information of geographical origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces. Also, a developed approach can be applied to other crop species to determine their origin and distribution. The manuscript is well written and is very interesting for the broad range of researchers.

There are only few small questions and suggestions:

1. The quality of all figures should be improved because of the low resolution of presented pictures. It is almost impossible to read legends.

I tried to increase the size of the letters, that will improve the quality of the figures 1 and 2.

2. Perhaps, it is better to include some parts of conclusions in the abstract to emphasize the importance of the review.

I tried to move parts of the conclusions to abstract, but the space of abstract is limited to 200 words. Finally I re-ordered the abstract to write something of the conclusions.

3. It is not well clear why these phrases were included at the end of chapter 3.1. They are not well connected to the previous text:

The cultivation of DW (along with bread wheat) arrived in America 228
from Spain at the beginning of the 16th century. The first reference is from 1529 in the 229 Dominican Republic, followed by Mexico in 1522 and Argentina in 1527 [7].

I wrote this, to write something about the presence of durum wheat in America, similar to olive tree. But you are right, it does not fit where it is, and I decided to remove it.

4. line 369: “... in situ and their seeds in ex situ collections.”Termsin situ, and in ex situ are usually written in Italic.

Yes, you are right, but MDPI limits the use of Italic type to the minimum. I changed in situ and ex situ to Italics.

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The presented Review deals with research on the origin of the Olive tree and durum wheat, i.e. economically important crops grown in Spain. The study compares genetic studies with historical development.

This view can be very interesting, because thanks to the understanding of phylogenetic relationships and the geographical origin of crops, it is possible to prevent the loss of genetic diversity and thus also unique properties such as resistance genes.

Although the study is very interesting and has a significant contribution to further durum wheat and olive tree breeding in Spain, I recommend a minor revision:

1) Consider whether it would be more appropriate to move the text describing molecular markers (lines 170-176) to the Methodology section.

2) Almost all images are of very low quality, especially images 1 and 2, which are not legible.

3) Image 5 A is again of very low quality and only part of the image is taken from the original study, therefore the numbers of groups on the map and the genetic structure do not match.

4) Image 5 B does not match the image description. The description says K value 2-5, but the picture shows only values 2-4, the map shows 5 groups.

5) Furthermore, in the caption of Figure 5, it would be appropriate to state on the basis of which molecular markers these calculations were performed.

6) Chapter References: citations are not uniform, somewhere "pp" is indicated, some publication years are indicated in bold. I am asking for unification according to the conditions of the magazine.

All links used are appropriately chosen.

After removing these shortcomings, I recommend the Review for publication in the journal Agronomy.

Author Response

Submitted to Agronomy: The origin of Spanish durum wheat and olive tree landraces based on genetic structure analysis and historical records

Reviewer 3

The presented Review deals with research on the origin of the Olive tree and durum wheat, i.e. economically important crops grown in Spain. The study compares genetic studies with historical development.

This view can be very interesting, because thanks to the understanding of phylogenetic relationships and the geographical origin of crops, it is possible to prevent the loss of genetic diversity and thus also unique properties such as resistance genes.

Although the study is very interesting and has a significant contribution to further durum wheat and olive tree breeding in Spain, I recommend a minor revision:

1) Consider whether it would be more appropriate to move the text describing molecular markers (lines 170-176) to the Methodology section.

These are previous studies of molecular markers in Spain. We could move to the MM, but I think if fits better in the introduction section.

2) Almost all images are of very low quality, especially images 1 and 2, which are not legible.

Yes, you are right. The quality and increase the size of the letters has been improved with the last modifications.

3) Image 5 A is again of very low quality and only part of the image is taken from the original study, therefore the numbers of groups on the map and the genetic structure do not match.

Ok, it is already corrected.

4) Image 5 B does not match the image description. The description says K value 2-5, but the picture shows only values 2-4, the map shows 5 groups.

5) Furthermore, in the caption of Figure 5, it would be appropriate to state on the basis of which molecular markers these calculations were performed.

6) Chapter References: citations are not uniform, somewhere "pp" is indicated, some publication years are indicated in bold. I am asking for unification according to the conditions of the magazine.

I checked all references and could detect some flaws. It is now alright. Pp. is indicated only in books and book chapters. Only publication years in journals are in bold type, the rest of years are in normal letters (according to MDPI formatting).

All links used are appropriately chosen.

After removing these shortcomings, I recommend the Review for publication in the journal Agronomy.

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.docx