Automatic Brix Measurement for Watermelon Breeding

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript presents a very interesting new use of technology that improves data collection for plant breeding selections

In general, it is in good shape and provides several examples of previous studies that look to improve in watermelon data collection. However I believe that more details are needed in the material and methods section, specifically regarding agronomic information on growing the water melons. More information on the increased speed and efficiency in using this new tool should also be included. Should also discuss how and when this tool should be used in a breeding program.

Title

I think the title is great and would not change it.

Abstract

The abstract is in great shape and I would leave it as is. It explains the issue, its importance and how the experiment tries to solve it. One thing that might be interesting to add here would be the accuracy improvement or timed saved per sample using this method compared to traditional methods used in breeding programs.

Introduction

Was is meant by “approbated”? Does this mean the variety was released commercially?

In line 72 give examples of breeding tasks which are accuracy-sensitive.

Materials and methods

Still need to add a lot of information on the agronomic practices used to grow the water melons. Were they grown open field or in green house. How many days after sowing were they harvested and how many days after harvest were they measured? What season were they grown in? Did all 25 water melons come from the same plot? This type of information is necessary because environmental factors can affect the brix content as well as fruit size.

Discussion

Should discuss how using the methods developed in the study would increase the speed of sampling and by how much. The cost of using this machine and process should also be discussed.

Conclusion

Should discuss what section of the breeding program this tool could be used in. During early generation selection or advance elite germplasm?

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

 

Point 1: I believe that more details are needed in the material and methods section, specifically regarding agronomic information on growing the water melons.

 

Response 1: We added agronomic information about the watermelon samples.

 

 

Point 2: More information on the increased speed and efficiency in using this new tool should also be included. Should also discuss how and when this tool should be used in a breeding program.

 

 

Response 2: We included the information about the efficiency of this machine and how to improve it in the future study. We also described in the discussion part that this tool should be used in large-scale sampling tasks. 

 

Point 3: One thing that might be interesting to add here would be the accuracy improvement or timed saved per sample using this method compared to traditional methods used in breeding programs.

 

 

Response 3: As described in the discussion part, we were focused on the feasibility of this solution, thus there are still some engineering problems remaining further investigation. We hope to increase sampling speed and compare with non-destructive method such as infra-red spectroscopy in the future.

 

 

Point 4: Was is meant by “approbated”? Does this mean the variety was released commercially? In line 72 give examples of breeding tasks which are accuracy-sensitive.

 

 

Response 4: We corrected the inappropriate word usage and explained why some of the breeding tasks are accuracy-sensitive.

 

 

Point 5: Still need to add a lot of information on the agronomic practices used to grow the water melons. Were they grown open field or in green house. How many days after sowing were they harvested and how many days after harvest were they measured? What season were they grown in? Did all 25 water melons come from the same plot? This type of information is necessary because environmental factors can affect the brix content as well as fruit size.

 

 

Response 5: This point is the same to Point 1. We added agronomic information about the watermelon samples.

 

 

Point 6: Should discuss how using the methods developed in the study would increase the speed of sampling and by how much. The cost of using this machine and process should also be discussed.

 

 

Response 6: We discussed these in the discussion part.

 

 

Point 7: Should discuss what section of the breeding program this tool could be used in. During early generation selection or advance elite germplasm?

 

Response 7: We added information about this in the conclusion part.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The Comunication by  Huang et al, on the automatic Brix measurement for watermelon breeding correctly debate on this problem and present in an appropriate way a method to do with precision this measure. The authors  have choosen for the destructive method but, as personal opinion, I think that some effort must be spent in the direcion of non destructive methods. anyway the authors stated in the sentences after row 229 that the methods must be improved to exceed some problem. Considering the effort to develop a correct approach to do Brix measurement I think the the results can be exposed at the interested community

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

 

Point 1: The authors have choosen for the destructive method but, as personal opinion, I think that some effort must be spent in the direction of non-destructive methods. Anyway, the authors stated in the sentences after row 229 that the methods must be improved to exceed some problem. Considering the effort to develop a correct approach to do Brix measurement I think the results can be exposed at the interested community.

 

Response 1: Thank you for your comments. We are still improving this solution, and also trying non-destructive ways. In the future, we will put some data and code of this project on an open-source platform.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx