Genetic Diversity in Apricot Orchards Across Key Growing Regions in Slovakia and Austria, Along with Cultivar Authentication of Apricot Genotypes Found in the Market

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

introduction and discussion are too long. Please cite more relevant and significant studies for the introduction section, no more than 1 and a half pages. for discussion, the section should discuss your results and how these results are consistent or agree with or superior to already reported studies.

The results are not well organized and presented.

Why do the author(s) perform SSR analysis although advanced techniques like RNA-seq are already available?

 

The conclusion is just like a summary, please write it.

Author Response

Many thanks for quickly evaluating our manuscript. We have revised the manuscript according to your instructions, and below in the text; we describe our corrections to the individual comments. Our answers are in red font in the attachment, and we have inserted them immediately after each comment. At the same time, all changes we made in the manuscript are in red font. Also, we have added the Supplementary materials.

Thank you for helping us improve our manuscript with your comments. 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Katarína Ondreičková

   Corresponding author

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

After reviewing your manuscript, I find it offers valuable insights into apricot genetic conservation. My specific observations are included in the attached PDF.

·       Introduction: Please revise this section to ensure all parts are clearly linked to the rest of the manuscript; currently, there is a segment that seems unrelated.

·       Discussion: I recommend emphasizing the importance and implications of your findings rather than relying heavily on comparisons with other studies.

·       Conclusion: There is a controversial statement that should be removed to maintain clarity.

I hope these suggestions will help strengthen your manuscript. Thank you for the opportunity to review your work.

Regards,

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Many thanks for quickly evaluating our manuscript. We have revised the manuscript according to your instructions, and below in the text; we describe our corrections to the individual comments. Our answers are in red font in the attachment, and we have inserted them immediately after each comment. At the same time, all changes we made in the manuscript are in red font. Also, we have added the Supplementary materials.

Thank you for helping us improve our manuscript with your comments.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Katarína Ondreičková

   Corresponding author

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript titled "Genetic diversity in apricot orchards of the most important growing regions in Slovakia and Austria and authentication of their production on the market" is a great step forward in molecular characterization of apricot cultivars towards implementation in raising awareness about proper cultivar labelling in the market as well as in preventing counterfeiting. However, the text seems to have been written in rush, as many omissions are noted, which are highlighted and commented in the .pdf file attached to improve the final quality of the article. The main remarks are:

Try to avoid jargon language. Please be maximally accurate and do not spare words to describe your thoughts.

Provide veracious information. Double-check if all information derived from your results are correctly interpreted.

The Introduction section should not be overloaded by the text that has a marginal connection with the study theme. Some parts should rather be used in Discussion to compare authors' results with the ones provided therein.

Several important omissions are noted in the M&M section. Additional information about sample collection and handling must be provided. This section might benefit from importing some text (highlighted) from Results.

I did not receive any supporting file. Supporting files containing examples of fragment analysis should be provided. Moreover, the Excel sheet containing all samples across all loci should be provided to allow open-science introspection in the allele distribution.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Many thanks for quickly evaluating our manuscript. We have revised the manuscript according to your instructions, and below in the text; we describe our corrections to the individual comments. Our answers are in red font in the attachment, and we have inserted them immediately after each comment. At the same time, all changes we made in the manuscript are in red font. Also, we have added the Supplementary materials.

Thank you for helping us improve our manuscript with your comments.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Katarína Ondreičková

   Corresponding author

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors fully implemented corrections needed to improve the overall manuscript quality. I suggest accepting for publication.

Author Response

Comment 1: The authors fully implemented corrections needed to improve the overall manuscript quality. I suggest accepting for publication.

Answer 1: We thank you for reviewing our manuscript, which has helped us improve it. We truly appreciate your feedback.