Review Reports - Seed Priming and Foliar Application with Nitrogen and Zinc Improve Seedling Growth, Yield, and Zinc Accumulation in Rice

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript involves the evaluation of the effect of N and Zn fertilizer management on seed germination, seedling growth, yield, and grain Zn accumulation in a modern improved rice variety (SPT1). Manuscript begins with the brief abstract followed by introduction explaining the need for increasing the Zn levels in rice. The study involved three experiments including preliminary laboratory and field studies. Results are clearly described along with discussion by giving relevant mechanisms.

General Comments

Typographical and grammatical errors should be checked before submitting the manuscript.

Make figures more presentable by adding top border and right border to graphs.

The section-wise comments have been given below:

Author details:

Remove ‘;’ after email ‘Tuiwongp8@gmail.com;’ in Line 8.

Abstract:

L20: Replace ‘simultaneously priming seeds’ by ‘simultaneous priming of seeds’.

L25: Replace ‘compared with controls’ by ‘as compared to control’.

L25-26: Add the words ‘foliar application of N+Zn+’.

Introduction

L33: Replace the words ‘is acting as’ with ‘to act as’.

L43: Replace ‘sufficient seed Zn’ by ‘sufficient level of Zn in seed’.

L43-45: Rephrase the sentence ‘Therefore, sufficient…….or alkaline soils’.

L56-58: Rephrase the sentence ‘Therefore in this study,…………Zn accumulation’.

L59: Replace ‘Applying a combination of’ by ‘Combined application of’.

L66: Don’t use ‘We’ in the sentence and replace it with ‘It was’.

Cite the following references in the introduction part which are relevant to the present work:

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112333, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26247671.

Materials and method

L91: Replace ‘were’ by ‘was’.

Keep one trend for writing units for eg. Replace ‘grams’ with ‘g’ as used in other sections of the manuscript.

L92: Provide full form of ‘DDI’ as appeared first time in the manuscript.

L100: Replace ‘deionize’ with ‘deionized’.

L108: Provide full form of ‘CRD’ as appeared first time in the manuscript.

L118: Provide full form of ‘YEB’.

L120: Replace ‘ground’ with ‘grounded’.

L125: Put ‘-1’ as superscript in ‘kg ha-1’.

L133: Replace ‘ground’ with ‘grounded’.

L141: Add ‘S’ in the abbreviation ‘AAS’.

L146: Omit ‘s’ in ‘comparisons’.

Results

L169: Replace ‘priming with N and Zn’ with N and Zn priming.

L170: Add word ‘with’ in line ‘Zn concentration with an increase of….’.

L201, L205, L209: Here the authors have mentioned about Table 0. Where is Table 0?

L218: Add word ‘with’ in line ‘per plant with an increase of 1.6…..’.

L221: Replace ‘was’ with ‘were’.

L228: Put ‘-2’ as superscript in ‘kg m-2’.

L242: Replace ‘and’ in phrase ‘and straw yield’ by ‘along with straw yield’.

Discussion

L263-L265: Please provide the pictorial representation of the mechanism involved in positive interaction between Zn and N for enhancing growth parameters along with Zn accumulation.

L265: Replace ‘facilitate’ with ‘facilitated’.

L267-L268: Replace ‘increases in the metabolism’ with ‘increased metabolism’.

L312: Replace ‘increases of yield components; with ‘increased yield components’.

L326: Replace ‘provides’ and ‘boosts’ with ‘provided’ and ‘boosted’.

L338: Replace ‘show’ with ‘showed’.

Conclusion

L363: Replace ‘to improving’ with ‘in improving’.

L368: Replace ‘is suitable’ with ‘has proved to be suitable’.

Add synonyms of the word ‘improve’ in the conclusion section as it has appeared so many times in the same paragraph.

Add line regarding the statistical results of the study.

References

Please check the reference style properly before submitting the manuscript.

Author Response

Manuscript title: Seed Priming and Foliar Application with Nitrogen and Zinc Improve Seedling Growth, Yield and Zinc Accumulation in Rice

Manuscript ID: agriculture-1550463

Reference: Major revision

The manuscript has been revised by the authors as in the following. Amendments to the manuscript are highlighted in yellow for reviewer 1, green for reviewer 2.

Response to reviewer’s comments

Reviewer 1 (yellow highlight)

Abstract

Comment: Line 20: Replace ‘simultaneously priming seeds’ by ‘simultaneous priming of seeds’.

Response: The phrase ‘simultaneous priming of seeds’ has been replaced in lines 25-26.

Comment: Line 25: Replace ‘compared with controls’ by ‘as compared to control’.

Response: The phrase ‘as compared to control’ has been replaced in line 32.

Comment: Line 25-26: Add the words ‘foliar application of N+Zn+’.

Response: The phrase ‘foliar application of N+Zn+’ has been added in line 33.

Introduction

Comment: Line 33: Replace the words ‘is acting as’ with ‘to act as’.

Response: The phrase ‘to act as’ has been replaced in line 51.

Comment: Line 43: Replace ‘sufficient seed Zn’ by ‘sufficient level of Zn in seed’.

Response: The phrase ‘sufficient level of Zn in the seed’ has been replaced in line 61.

Comment: Line 43-45: Rephrase the sentence ‘Therefore, sufficient…….or alkaline soils’.

Response: The sentence ‘Therefore, sufficient…or alkaline soils’ has been rephrased in line 61-63.

Comment: Line 56-58: Rephrase the sentence ‘Therefore in this study,…………Zn accumulation’.

Response: The sentence ‘Therefore in this study,…Zn accumulation has been rephrased in lines 75-79.

Comment: Line 59: Replace ‘Applying a combination of’ by ‘Combined application of’.

Response: The phrase ‘The combined application of’ has been replaced in line 80.

Comment: Line 66: Don’t use ‘We’ in the sentence and replace it with ‘It was’.

Response: The phrase ‘It was’ has been replaced in line 87.

Materials and method

Comment: Line 91: Replace ‘were’ by ‘was’. Keep one trend for writing units for eg. Replace ‘grams’ with ‘g’ as used in other sections of the manuscript.

Response: The word ‘was’ has been replaced in line 112. The letter ‘g’ has been replaced in line 112.

Comment: Line 92: Provide full form of ‘DDI’ as appeared first time in the manuscript.

Response: The phrase ‘distilled deionized water’ has been replaced in line 120.

Comment: Line 100: Replace ‘deionize’ with ‘deionized’.

Response: The word ‘deionized’ has been replaced in line 122.

Comment: Line 108: Provide full form of ‘CRD’ as appeared first time in the manuscript.

Response: The phrase ‘a completely randomized design’ has been replaced in line 130-131.

Comment: Line 118: Provide full form of ‘YEB’.

Response: The phrase ‘the youngest emerged blade’ has been replaced in line 140-141.

Comment: Line 120: Replace ‘ground’ with ‘grounded’.

Response: The word ‘grounded’ has been replaced in line 142.

Comment: Line 125: Put ‘-1’ as superscript in ‘kg ha-1’.

Response: The numeral ‘-1’ has been replaced in line 148.

Comment: Line 133: Replace ‘ground’ with ‘grounded’.

Response: The word ‘grounded’ has been replaced in line 157.

Comment: Line 141: Add ‘S’ in the abbreviation ‘AAS’.

Response: The word ‘AAS’ has been replaced in line 165.

Comment: Line 146: Omit ‘s’ in ‘comparisons’.

Response: The word ‘comparison’ has been replaced in line 170.

Results

Comment: Line 169: Replace ‘priming with N and Zn’ with N and Zn priming.

Response: The phrase ‘with N and Zn priming’ has been replaced in line 194.

Comment: Line 170: Add word ‘with’ in line ‘Zn concentration with an increase of….’.

Response: The word ‘with’ has been added in line 195.

Comment: Line 201, L205, L209: Here the authors have mentioned about Table 0. Where is Table 0?

Response: The sentence has been corrected in line 226, 230 and 236-237, respectively.

Comment: Line 218: Add word ‘with’ in line ‘per plant with an increase of 1.6…..’.

Response: The word ‘with’ has been added in line 246.

Comment: Line 221: Replace ‘was’ with ‘were’.

Response: The word ‘were’ has been replaced in line 249.

Comment: Line 228: Put ‘-2’ as superscript in ‘kg m-2’.

Response: The numeral ‘-2’ has been replaced in line 256.

Comment: Line 242: Replace ‘and’ in phrase ‘and straw yield’ by ‘along with straw yield’.

Response: The phrase ‘along with straw yield’ has been replaced in line 270.

Discussion

Comment: Line 263-L265: Please provide the pictorial representation of the mechanism involved in positive interaction between Zn and N for enhancing growth parameters along with Zn accumulation.

Response: The information has been added in lines 291-296.

Comment: Line 265: Replace ‘facilitate’ with ‘facilitated’.

Response: The word ‘facilitated’ has been replaced in line 298.

Comment: Line 267-L268: Replace ‘increases in the metabolism’ with ‘increased metabolism’

Response: The phrase ‘increased metabolism’ has been replaced in line 300.

Comment: Line 312: Replace ‘increases of yield components; with ‘increased yield components’.

Response: The phrase ‘increased yield components’ has been replaced in line 345-346.

Comment: Line 326: Replace ‘provides’ and ‘boosts’ with ‘provided’ and ‘boosted’.

Response: The word ‘provided’ and ‘boosted’ has been replaced in line 359.

Comment: Line 338: Replace ‘show’ with ‘showed’.

Response: The word ‘showed’ has been replaced in line 371.

Conclusion

Comment: Line 363: Replace ‘to improving’ with ‘in improving’.

Response: The phrase ‘in boosting’ has been replaced in line 396.

Comment: Line 368: Replace ‘is suitable’ with ‘has proved to be suitable’.

Response: The phrase ‘has proved to be suitable’ has been replaced in line 401.

Comment: Add synonyms of the word ‘improve’ in the conclusion section as it has appeared so many times in the same paragraph.

Response: The word ‘boosting’ and ‘enhanced’ has been replaced in line 396 and 403, respectively.

Comment: Add line regarding the statistical results of the study.

Response: The statistical results has been added in line 404-408.

References

Comment: Please check the reference style properly before submitting the manuscript

Response: The reference has been corrected throughout the manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments to the authors:

The experiment was well conducted and the processes have been described in the article “Seed Priming and Foliar Application with Nitrogen and Zinc Improve Seedling Growth, Yield and Zinc Accumulation in Rice)”. I have following concerns regarding current manuscript that authors should consider while revising their manuscript.

-Please revise study objective, objective should be general but not summarize the parameters names. Moreover, mention treatments in abstract.

-Provide future recommendation at the end of abstract section.

-I recommend to not using the keywords mentioned in title and five keywords are enough.

-Please provide the importance of studied crop/ plants in introduction section.

-Revise the objective by merging all 3 objectives into a single comprehensive one.

-Authors should provide references for the protocols followed by authors for soil analysis.

-On which basis treatments have been selected? Any reference?

-What were the natural conditions of the experiment? For example, day and night temperature, humidity.

-Which statistical software was used for the statistical analysis? Mention please.

-Results are presented and discussed well but I recommend to change the lettering sequence i.e. put ‘a’ on highest value bar. Moreover, put error bars to clear understanding of the statistics.

-Add future recommending sentence at the end of conclusion section.

-References should be according to journal given format.

Author Response

Manuscript title: Seed Priming and Foliar Application with Nitrogen and Zinc Improve Seedling Growth, Yield and Zinc Accumulation in Rice

Manuscript ID: agriculture-1550463

Reference: Major revision

The manuscript has been revised by the authors as in the following. Amendments to the manuscript are highlighted in yellow for reviewer 1, green for reviewer 2.

Response to reviewer’s comments

Reviewer 2 (green highlight)

Comment: Please revise study objective, objective should be general but not summarize the parameters names. Moreover, mention treatments in abstract.

Response:

The objective has been revised in line 15-17.

The treatments have been mentioned in the abstract in line 17-21, 23-25 and 28-31.

Comment: Provide future recommendation at the end of abstract section.

Response: The future recommendation has been added in line 36-39.

Comment: I recommend to not using the keywords mentioned in title and five keywords are enough.

Response: The keyword of the manuscript has been changed accordingly.

Comment: Please provide the importance of studied crop/ plants in introduction section.

Response: The information has been added in line 44-49.

Comment: Revise the objective by merging all 3 objectives into a single comprehensive one.

Response: The objective has been revised in line 90-92.

Comment: Authors should provide references for the protocols followed by authors for soil analysis.

Response: The reference for the protocols for soil analysis has been added in materials and methods in line 105-108.

Comment: On which basis treatments have been selected? Any reference?

Response: The basic treatment is referred to the previous publications. The references have been added in line 118 and 152.

Comment: What were the natural conditions of the experiment? For example, day and night temperature, humidity.

Response: The natural conditions of the experiment has been added in line 101-102.

Comment: Which statistical software was used for the statistical analysis? Mention please.

Response: The statistical software has been added in line 171.

Comment: Results are presented and discussed well but I recommend to change the lettering sequence i.e. put ‘a’ on highest value bar. Moreover, put error bars to clear understanding of the statistics.

Response: The lettering sequence has been changed, and the error bars have been added throughout the manuscript.