From Emergence to Flowering: Four Beet (Beta vulgaris ssp.) Cultivars’ Phenological Response to Seed Priming
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Review of: From emergence to flowering: four beet (Beta vulgaris ssp.) cultivars’ phenological response to seed priming – November 2019
This paper studies the effect of seed priming not only on seed germination but also in the following vegetative plant stages of the crop Beta vulgaris. In general, the article is an interesting topic from which the agricultural sector, farmers and seed producers could benefit. However, the methods and results should be improved in order to make it easier and clearer to the reader. Please see the comments below.
General comments
In the introduction the authors should mention imbibition (it is mentioned in the discussion) and overpriming/overprimed should be defined and mentioned in the introduction too.
Figure 2 are seeds according to the caption, but in Line 158 (only time Figure 2 is mentioned) it refers to the fruit cavity where the seeds are. Could you show/mark the fruit cavity on Fig.2 for each cultivar? Are they fruits or seeds? If is not relevant, maybe Fig 2 could be removed.
Figure 3,4,5,6 could be merged in one Figure A, B, C, D as the authors did on Fig. 7 and the units are missing in the y-axis in all of them.
Increase font size on the legend and axes (title and numbers) of the Figures as they are difficult to read. Having the same scale in the y-axis will help to visually differentiate the cultivars easier, also add units when possible.
Figure 7 – The authors used AUC acronym in the introduction but in results and discussion tend to use Area under emergence curve. Be consistent.
Figure 8 – Not found in the text, why the authors think GDD for bolting in FG had a large variance in the control? Any explanation?
Specific comments are included in the main text.
Line 9 – the authors say Beta species, Beta is the genus. You could put “Beta vulgaris species comprises…”, or “Beta genus comprises…” Same is repeated in Line 30, 65
Lines 45-48 – This sentence could be split in two. It is not clear in Line 47 when you say “… mother plant and partially vernalized…” you mean “ the seeds can be partially vernalized?” rephrase.
Line 49-50 – What do you mean by “interior and exterior elements?” abiotic? Hormones? Could you specify or give examples?
Line 77 – “priming is controlled hydration…” suggest to change by “priming regulates/controls hydration…” or “is controlling”
Line 81 – What about thermal priming? You have a few articles you could cite, e.g:
Alipor, S., Taghvaei, M., Jalilian, A., Kazemeini, A., & Razi, H. (2019). Hydro-thermal priming enhance seed germination capacity and seedling growth in sugar beet. Cellular and molecular biology (Noisy-le-Grand, France), 65(4), 90-96.
Chiu, K. Y., Chen, C. L., & Sung, J. M. (2002). Effect of priming temperature on storability of primed sh-2 sweet corn seed. Crop Science, 42(6), 1996-2003.
Line 93 – “the aim of affecting the seed performance…” is not clear. Do you mean “how priming affect seed performance?” rephrase
Line 99-102 – All the cultivars are used by their root? Chard is normally used for its leaves. Specify which cultivar is used for what, since that will affect the discussion on how the priming is affecting each plant stage.
Line 103 – “beet pericarp” replace with “pericarp of beet seeds”
Line 111 – Why at 20C? is that the optimal temperature for all the cultivars? Is that temperature simulating the outside climate?
Line 113 – 35% of what? Moisture content? Specify. How the moisture content was measured? At which temperature the drying occurred?
Line 120 – How often the pots where irrigated?
Line 126 – Here is where you could specify which cultivar seeds have monogerm or multigerm.
Line 134 – Only the first plant of each plot was measured for start the flowering? Why? Then you don’t have replicates on this response?
Line 135-137 – Include the equation used to calculate GDD, which temperature you use?
Line 142-143 – Rephrase “Models additive models…” do you mean “The additive models…?”
Line 162 – is FG multigerm? Not sure if it is correct to compare with SB (monogerm). A pot with multigerm seeds will probably have more seedlings than a pot with monogerm seeds.
Line 185 – “BB required the least GDD among the teste cultivars” What about DB? Maybe is due to the scale but it seems DB required less GDD than BB.
Line 185-186 – What do you mean by less reaction to priming? SB treatments required less GDD than the control. More explanation is needed
Line 190-191 – This sentence is great for setting the scene, could you add a similar sentence explaining bolting?
Line 193-194 – “The variation among the non-treated seeds was high in SB”, higher compare to what? In relation to?
Line 197-198 – Largest response to the treatment? Meaning? Not only DB seeds respond to priming comparing to the control. Priming on BB seeds also had significant effect.
Line 200 – Do not start a sentence with a number.
Table 1- Is not clear. The control is missing in the table, why? Are you comparing the results on the table to the control data as you state in the text? In some cases, you have non-significant results in the Table, but the Figures say otherwise (if comparing with control). This Table and all the text related to the table must be improved!
Line 209-210 – “ required GDD in GDD from E50 to Flowering and DeltaGDD from Bolting to Flowering”?? Rephrase that sentence, not clear.
Line 216- Section 4.5 – Side branches are not mentioned in the introduction nor in the M&M. It should be mention.
Line 245 – Do you have the environmental conditions of the pots? Could you add that in M&M?
Line 247 – “beta species” do you mean beet cultivars?
Line 250 – “seed priming can be non-beneficial to root production though the effect on the seed production is positive” Rephrase or reorder. Is there a comma missing?
Line 251 – Change order “The vegetative production of FG…”
Line 258 – Change the first sentence for “In the cultivars DB and BB, vegetative production priming is not recommended (you can cite here the Table 2)”
Author Response
In the introduction the authors should mention imbibition (it is mentioned in the discussion) and overpriming/overprimed should be defined and mentioned in the introduction too.
Author response:
Imbibition was mentioned in L84 . Overpriming has now introduced in L81.Figure 2 are seeds according to the caption, but in Line 158 (only time Figure 2 is mentioned) it refers to the fruit cavity where the seeds are. Could you show/mark the fruit cavity on Fig.2 for each cultivar? Are they fruits or seeds? If is not relevant, maybe Fig 2 could be removed.
Author response:
Sugar beet seed is in fact a fruit, and true seed is inside the fruit cavity, which is covered with a lid (operculum). It is not possible to show the fruit cavity in this picture, therefore the “fruit cavity” is deleted from the text.Figure 3,4,5,6 could be merged in one Figure A, B, C, D as the authors did on Fig. 7 and the units are missing in the y-axis in all of them.
Author response:
We agree in this suggestion and we have merged the four figures to a new figure 3. However, since the four graphs have different x- and y- axis, we have placed them underneath each other. For now, this is not optimal, but we hope the journal team can assist in preparing a better page.
Increase font size on the legend and axes (title and numbers) of the Figures as they are difficult to read. Having the same scale in the y-axis will help to visually differentiate the cultivars easier, also add units when possible.
Author response:
With this merge of the four figures to one, font size will increase.
Figure 7 – The authors used AUC acronym in the introduction but in results and discussion tend to use Area under emergence curve. Be consistent.
Author response:
“Area under emergence curve” has now been changed to AUC in the results and discussion section to be consistent.
Figure 8 – Not found in the text, why the authors think GDD for bolting in FG had a large variance in the control? Any explanation?
Author response:
It mentioned in the section 4.2. The long box plot shows the high variation in FG control. Vegetable beets production is a small area and not that much of effort has been done on their breeding. FG is a leaf production crop. Probably all efforts were concentrated on its vegetative improvement, rather than having a homogeneous bolting.
Specific comments are included in the main text.
Line 9 – the authors say Beta species, Beta is the genus. You could put “Beta vulgaris species comprises…”, or “Beta genus comprises…” Same is repeated in Line 30, 65
Author response:
Thanks, it has been changed in the text.
Lines 45-48 – This sentence could be split in two. It is not clear in Line 47 when you say “… mother plant and partially vernalized…” you mean “ the seeds can be partially vernalized?” rephrase.
Author response:
Thanks for the suggestion. It is applied in the text.
Line 49-50 – What do you mean by “interior and exterior elements?” abiotic? Hormones? Could you specify or give examples?
Author response:
This is now specified in the text. Agree: Genetic is the interior factor, environment and agricultural management are the exterior factors.
Line 77 – “priming is controlled hydration…” suggest to change by “priming regulates/controls hydration…” or “is controlling”
Author response:
Thanks for the suggestion, it is applied in the text.
Line 81 – What about thermal priming? You have a few articles you could cite, e.g:
Alipor, S., Taghvaei, M., Jalilian, A., Kazemeini, A., & Razi, H. (2019). Hydro-thermal priming enhance seed germination capacity and seedling growth in sugar beet. Cellular and molecular biology (Noisy-le-Grand, France), 65(4), 90-96.
Chiu, K. Y., Chen, C. L., & Sung, J. M. (2002). Effect of priming temperature on storability of primed sh-2 sweet corn seed. Crop Science, 42(6), 1996-2003.
Author response:
Thermal priming and related citations were added to the text.
Line 93 – “the aim of affecting the seed performance…” is not clear. Do you mean “how priming affect seed performance?” rephrase
Author response:
This sentence has been rephrased to: The response to priming was evaluated in different developmental stages with the overarching aim to reduce the required growing degree days (GDD) from the emergence to the reproduction stage.
Line 99-102 – All the cultivars are used by their root? Chard is normally used for its leaves. Specify which cultivar is used for what, since that will affect the discussion on how the priming is affecting each plant stage.
Author response:
They is now specified in the first paragraph of the Materials and methods.
Line 103 – “beet pericarp” replace with “pericarp of beet seeds”
Author response:
Applied in the text.
Line 111 – Why at 20C? is that the optimal temperature for all the cultivars? Is that temperature simulating the outside climate?
Author response:
This is the temperature for seed germination test in beets recommended by ISTA, so we applied it during the priming.
Line 113 – 35% of what? Moisture content? Specify. How the moisture content was measured? At which temperature the drying occurred?
Author response:
The moisture content and related equation are specified in the text. The temperature of drying is mentioned in the text.
Line 120 – How often the pots where irrigated?
Author response:
Pots were irrigated daily, according to their size and the environmental conditions.
Line 126 – Here is where you could specify which cultivar seeds have monogerm or multigerm.
Author response:
Cultivars are now specified according to the monogerm or multigerm character.
Line 134 – Only the first plant of each plot was measured for start the flowering? Why? Then you don’t have replicates on this response?
Author response:
The experiment had 4 replicates for each pot, so there was 4 reads for each treatment for bolting. Due to the risk of allergy to the high amount of pollen that was produced by beets, it was decided to discard the pot after the first record, rather than waiting for all four plants to flower.
Line 135-137 – Include the equation used to calculate GDD, which temperature you use?
Author response:
The equation and the related information are added.
Line 142-143 – Rephrase “Models additive models…” do you mean “The additive models…?”
Author response:
Yes, the text is corrected.
Line 162 – is FG multigerm? Not sure if it is correct to compare with SB (monogerm). A pot with multigerm seeds will probably have more seedlings than a pot with monogerm seeds.
Author response:
Agree, we did not compare the cultivars directly. The comparisons were done within each cultivar.
Line 185 – “BB required the least GDD among the teste cultivars” What about DB? Maybe is due to the scale but it seems DB required less GDD than BB.
Author response:
They are almost similar but the point was to show the big difference after priming.
Line 185-186 – What do you mean by less reaction to priming? SB treatments required less GDD than the control. More explanation is needed.
Author response:
It means, in SB and FG the GDD difference between plants from control and the treated seeds was lower, compared to BB and DB. However, this low difference between the plants from treated and non-treated seeds in SB was significant but it was not the case for FG.
Line 190-191 – This sentence is great for setting the scene, could you add a similar sentence explaining bolting?
Author response:
Thanks, such sentence is added to L201-203.
Line 193-194 – “The variation among the non-treated seeds was high in SB”, higher compare to what? In relation to?
Author response:
In relation to the primed seeds and in particular to the 24h treatment. We have revised the sentence.
Line 197-198 – Largest response to the treatment? Meaning? Not only DB seeds respond to priming comparing to the control. Priming on BB seeds also had significant effect.
Author response:
The text is changed.
Line 200 – Do not start a sentence with a number.
Author response:
Applied in the text.
Table 1- Is not clear. The control is missing in the table, why? Are you comparing the results on the table to the control data as you state in the text? In some cases, you have non-significant results in the Table, but the Figures say otherwise (if comparing with control). This Table and all the text related to the table must be improved!
Author response:
The figures show GDD from sowing but this table compare the GDD between two phenological stages (E50-Bolting, E50-Flowering, and Bolting-Flowering).
As mentioned, the GDDs were compared to the control, which is the reason that the control data was not in the table. Now the data is added to the table and the description of the table is added to L220-223.
Line 209-210 – “ required GDD in GDD from E50 to Flowering and DeltaGDD from Bolting to Flowering”?? Rephrase that sentence, not clear.
Author response:
The sentence has been rephrased.
Line 216- Section 4.5 – Side branches are not mentioned in the introduction nor in the M&M. It should be mention.
Author response:
It was mentioned in L 62 and L138.
Line 245 – Do you have the environmental conditions of the pots? Could you add that in M&M?
Author response:
The temperature of greenhouse added to L129.
Line 247 – “beta species” do you mean beet cultivars?
Author response:
Yes, corrected.
Line 250 – “seed priming can be non-beneficial to root production though the effect on the seed production is positive” Rephrase or reorder. Is there a comma missing?
Author response:
The sentence has been revised
Line 251 – Change order “The vegetative production of FG…”
Author response:
Order changed.
Line 258 – Change the first sentence for “In the cultivars DB and BB, vegetative production priming is not recommended (you can cite here the Table 2)”
Author response:
Thanks, sentence changed.
Reviewer 2 Report
In the Introduction section, paragraphs 1-8 may be dropped because they are generally known facts and are not directly related to experience. Figure 1 can also be removed and it is not cited. In Material and Methods, 1 sentence of 1 paragraph may be more appropriate for the Introduction. The quantities of seeds to be treated and their initial humidity and whether they have been grown under the same conditions and technology should be noted. It is appropriate to spell the names of the varieties in full and not in the acronym. Indicate units of measure for figures 3 to 6 and Table 1. Data for side branches should also be given, as the image of figure 10 is not sufficient. It is also necessary to consider how the average treatment time of 16 hours changes the course of the GDD E50 relative to the lowest 8 hours exposure and then at 24 hours again there is another move closer to that with the lowest exposure. It is appropriate to revise the conclusion and to include only experience data.
But in the first place, however, it is extremely necessary to provide data from another growing season, as well as slightly more detailed results on phenology.
Author Response
In the Introduction section, paragraphs 1-8 may be dropped because they are generally known facts and are not directly related to experience.
Author response:
Paragraph 1-8 is introducing our plant material, the phenological characters of it, and the seed production. Therefore, we consider these lines necessary for the further discussionFigure 1 can also be removed and it is not cited.
Author response:
It was cited in L68, and we believe it gives additional value to the text
In Material and Methods, 1 sentence of 1 paragraph may be more appropriate for the Introduction.
Author response:
This line is introducing the plant materials that we were using in this experiment.
The quantities of seeds to be treated and their initial humidity and whether they have been grown under the same conditions and technology should be noted.
Author response:
The quantity was mentioned in L113 (1 gram). The initial moisture content has been added to L121. Since seeds were from different companies, probably the growing condition and the technology were different for different cultivars. However, in this study, comparisons were done within cultivars, not between cultivars.
It is appropriate to spell the names of the varieties in full and not in the acronym.
Author response:
They were spelled in the first paragraph of Material and Methods.
Indicate units of measure for figures 3 to 6 and Table 1.
Author response:
The units are added to the table. For figure 3-6 (which is now merged to a new figure 3).
Data for side branches should also be given, as the image of figure 10 is not sufficient.
Author response:
The average for each cultivar was mentioned in section 4.5. This number was almost similar for the plants from treated and non-treated seeds.
It is also necessary to consider how the average treatment time of 16 hours changes the course of the GDD E50 relative to the lowest 8 hours exposure and then at 24 hours again there is another move closer to that with the lowest exposure.
Author response:
We think this comment is related to figure 9, but we really don’t have an explanation for this effect in relation to flowering.
It is appropriate to revise the conclusion and to include only experience data.
Author response:
In the first version of the draft, we – by mistake – mentioned imbibition time, it should have been priming time, and it is now changed.
But in the first place, however, it is extremely necessary to provide data from another growing season, as well as slightly more detailed results on phenology.
Author response:
In general we agree that more growing seasons provides more robust data due to the representation of more diverse climatic conditions. In this experiment, however, plants were grown in the greenhouse during the reproductive development – where temperature and irrigation were controlled. Light-environment was not controlled as this is an important stimuli during the reproductive development. Therefor we consider our data valid although we have only one growing season.
