Identification of Phenotypic and Physiological Markers of Salt Stress Tolerance in Durum Wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) through Integrated Analyses

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper had interesting data and is worthy of publication, however, I found it extremely difficult to read and understand due to the quality of the English.

 

Some specific points:

For statistical analysis line 160 "each data was given as mean of 9 values? I don't know what that means.

Table 2 please label the column for abreviations

Figure 1 label the figures A and B

Table 3 spell out the plant traits 

Discussion line 293 What did the previous studies say?

As mentioned in the review. I would not recommend publication due to the quality of the English. It should be rewritten and submitted again.

 

Author Response

This paper had interesting data and is worthy of publication, however, I found it extremely difficult to read and understand due to the quality of the English.

Some specific points:

For statistical analysis line 160 "each data was given as mean of 9 values? I don't know what that means.

Each data point is the mean of 9 independent replicates corresponding to 9 different plants (n = 9). The sentence has been modified lines 161-162.

Table 2 please label the column for abbreviations

Abbreviations has been added on the second column in Table 2.

Figure 1 label the figures A and B

Figure 1 was already labelled with A and B (upper left hand-side). The letters A and B have been enlarged to be more visible.

4.Table 3 spell out the plant traits

Plant traits are now spelt out on table 3.

Discussion line 293 What did the previous studies say?

The missing information is now provided in line 296 to 298.

As mentioned in the review. I would not recommend publication due to the quality of the English. It should be rewritten and submitted again.

The paper has been checked by an English editing service. The changes are indicated in blue font.

Reviewer 2 Report

On rows-101-103 It would be nice to know which are the parameters without going to the references.

The short names used for traits are not highly self-explaining. Moreover, abbreviations for varieties should be somewhere. 

Be careful the OM used for OM Rabiaa sometimes is reported as MO.

Author Response

On rows-101-103 It would be nice to know which are the parameters without going to the references.

The parameters have been indicated lines 100-101 (shoot and root length, shoot and root fresh weight, leaf area and whole plant dry matter).

 

The short names used for traits are not highly self-explaining. Moreover, abbreviations for varieties should be somewhere.

Abbreviations are now spelt out in Table 2 and Table 3.

Varieties were mentioned in Materials and Methods section lines 75-77 and the abbreviations are now indicated in the legend of Figure 1 (lines 191-193) and of Figure 2 (lines 223-224).

 

Be careful the OM used for OM Rabiaa sometimes is reported as MO.

The mistakes have been corrected in lines 257, 260, 270, 284, 341, 362, 385

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Editor/Authors,

Salinity stress is one of the most important problems in reducing the growth and productivity of wheat in the world. In this manuscript entitled “Identification of Phenotypic and Physiological 2 Markers for Salt Stress Tolerance in Durum Wheat 3 (Triticum durum Desf.) the authors compared nine Tunisian durum wheat genotypes based on phenotypic and physiological markers under salinity stress condition. in my opinion, the authors' strategy in selecting the genotypes is interesting and seems useful in further research.The methodology and results are described in great details.

Author Response

Dear Editor/Authors,

Salinity stress is one of the most important problems in reducing the growth and productivity of wheat in the world. In this manuscript entitled “Identification of Phenotypic and Physiological 2 Markers for Salt Stress Tolerance in Durum Wheat 3 (Triticum durum Desf.) the authors compared nine Tunisian durum wheat genotypes based on phenotypic and physiological markers under salinity stress condition. in my opinion, the authors' strategy in selecting the genotypes is interesting and seems useful in further research. The methodology and results are described in great details.

 

We thank the reviewer for these positive comments.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

This was interesting research. The authors did a good job on correcting the English to make it more readable.