Genetic Dissection of Tiller Number qTN4 in Rice
, Yongyi Fan 1,†, Dian Li 1, Zhihao Sun 1, Zheyan Ruan 1, Huali Yang 1, Yiwei Kang 1, Weixun Wu 1, Qunen Liu 1, Xiaodeng Zhan 1, Liyong Cao 1,2, Ming Zhou 3, Shihua Cheng 1,* and Yingxin Zhang 1,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The language and grammar of the manuscript need some revision for further improvement. Some points in this regard (only for example) include:
a. The statement, “…tiller number is a developmental process and is more susceptible to environmental conditions and management practice under field conditions [5]” has become redundant between line numbers 76-77 and between those 93-95.
b. Line 118: Change “cross” to “crossed”
c. Line 137-138: Replace “On the one…NILCSSL29,…” with “On one stage…2022 and on the other, NILCSSL29,…”
d. Line 139: Add “the” after “All”
e. Line 142: Refer to the point d above.
f. Line 147: Replace “…mature period.” with “…time of maturity.”
g. Line 150: Delete “by”
h. Line 184: Add “a” before “significant”
i. Line 203: Replace “ and red boxes” with “and the red ones”
j. Line 358: Delete “to”
k. Line 384: Delete “of”
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise the manuscript. We would like to express our most sincere gratitude to the editors and reviewers for their great efforts to our manuscript. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in revision model in the paper (on yellow background). The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are in the attachment. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Manuscript entitled “Genetic Dissection of Tiller Number qTN4 in Rice” by Chen et al. address the study of qTN4.1 and qTN4.2 in rice, and its relationship to the tiller number.
The work is interesting but, in my opinion, the manuscript presents some issues mainly in the Figures, Material and Methods, References and, as well as other things, that need to be checked to make this work suitable for publication.
1. Main issues:
1.1. Regarding Figures.
Figures should be number according to its citation in the main text. Because of that I think that Figure 4A should appear as an independent figure, called Figure 1, and the next Figures should be renamed accordingly.
Figure 2. HD should be described in the figure legend.
Figure 2E and 3D. Means and their respectively SEM should contain the same number of significant numbers.
Figure 2 and 3. Regarding statistical analysis the authors should detail which line has been used as reference.
Figure 3D. What is the range?
Figure 3D. * and ** should be described in the figure legend.
Figure S1. Please correct “Zhonghui9308” with “Zhonghui 9308”, the 2 of F2, the 2:3 of F2:3,,,,,,,,,,,, should be in subscript.
Figure S1 legend. Please correct “Fig. S1” with “Figure S1”. Abbreviations should be described in the legend: QTL, 2020FY, 2021LS, etc.
Figure S2 legend. Please correct “Letters mean ……..level” with “Different letters indicate significant differences between lines according to Duncan´n test (P < 0.05)”.
Table S1. Please order alphabetically
Table S2. Means and their respectively SEM should contain the same number of significant numbers. Below the table is missing HD (HD should be described).
Table S3. Please define QTL and CSSLs
Table S4. Please define QTL, 2021FY, and 2022LS
Tables S5 y S6. Please correct “Database(MSU)” with “Database (MSU), and “Database(Rap-DB)” with “Database (Rap-DB)”
1.2. Regarding Material and Methods:
I must point to the authors that, according to the Instructions for Authors section of this journal, Full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. The Materials and Methods section of this manuscript is not detailed enough for other authors to repeat some of the experiments, in particular the PCR experiments (reagents, conditions, etc.).
1.3. Regarding section References
The references list has numerous format mistakes. The most serious mistakes refer to:
The year of journal articles should be in boldface
The volume should be in italics
The Abbreviated Journal Name should be: e.g. reference 1 “Physiol. Mol. Biol. Plants” and not “Physiol Mol Biol Plants.”
Almost all the words in the title begin with capital letters. Many of them should not be in that format. Please correct this.
In addition to these indicated errors, there are others that must be corrected. I kindly urge to the authors to review the entire format of the references, according to the journal requirements.
2. Additional comments
Line 17. Please correct “map QTL” with “map quantitative trait locus (QTL)” or “map quantitative trait loci (QTL)”.
Lines 28 and 29. Please check “and grain yield of the per plant”
Line 40. Please correct “[2, 3]” with “[2,3]”.
Line 43. Please correct “weight of 1000 grains” with “weight of 1000 grains (TGW)”
Line 43. Please correct “[5, 6]” with “[5,6]”.
Line 47. Please correct “[9, 10]” with “[9,10]”.
Lines 72 and 73. Please correct “[19, 20], FON1 [8, 21],” with “[19,20], FON1 [8,21],”.
Line 83. Please correct “DH” with “double haploid (DH)”.
Line 93. Please correct “[29, 30]” with “[29,30]”.
Line 102. Please correct “CSSL” with “chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs)”.
Line 107. Please correct “76 chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs),” with “76 CSSLs,”
Lines 177 and 178. Please correct “Fuyang, Zhejiang Province 177 (30.15°N, 120°E)” with “Fuyang”, because the location is already in Material and Methods
Line 181. Please correct “Lingshui, Hainan Province” with “Lingshui,”. because the location is already in Material and Methods
Line 189. Please correct “[38, 39]” with “[38,39]”.
Line 227. Please correct “10cm” with “10 cm”
Line 237. Please correct “14,710,197” with “14,710,197 bp”
Line 256. Please correct “Figure. 4F-4I” with “Figure 4F-4I”
Line 261. I don't understand “XB genome”
Line 268. I don't understand “which was PA29”
Line 270. I don't understand “especially the PA133 and PA27”
Line 237. Please correct “14,710,197” with “14,710,197 bp”
Line 271. Please correct “11,645,392” with “11,645,392 bp”
Line 272. Please correct “13,610,832” with “13,610,832 bp”
Line 274. I don't understand “had a significantly higher tiller number than PA29”
Line 274. Please correct “NILCSSL29. (Fig” with “NILCSSL29 (Fig”
Line 280. I don't understand “XB genome”
Line 303. Please correct “such as heading date (HD),” with “such as HD,”
Lines 315 and 316. Please correct “The grain length (GL), the ratio of grain length to width (LWR), 1000-grain weight 315 (TGW) and” with “The GL, the LWR, TGW and”
Lines 315 and 316. Please correct “1000-grain weight 315 (TGW)” with “such as HD,”
Line 339. Please correct “10cm” with “10 cm”, and “1cm” with “1 cm”
Line 344. Please correct “[23, 41-43]” with “[23,41-43]”.
Line 345. I don't understand “RI population”
Line 354. Please correct “13,635,012” with “13,635,012 bp”
Line 354. Please correct “by using a double haploid (DH) developed from” with “by using a DH developed from”
Lines 374 and 375. Please correct “regulates salicylic acid (SA) and 374 jasmonic acid (JA) signaling” with “regulates salicylic acid and jasmonic acid signaling”
Lines 409-4177. Please correct “Conceptualization, Shihua Cheng and Yingxin Zhang; Formal analysis, Hongmei Chen and Yongyi Fan; Investigation, Hongmei Chen, Yongyi Fan, Dian Li, Zhihao Sun and Zheyan Ruan; Methodology, Shihua Cheng and Yingxin Zhang; Project administration, Weixun Wu, Qunen Liu, Xiaodeng Zhan, Liyong Cao, Ming Zhou, Shihua Cheng and Yingxin Zhang; Resources, Shihua Cheng and Yingxin Zhang; Supervision, Weixun Wu, Qunen Liu, Xiaodeng Zhan, Liyong Cao, Ming Zhou, Shihua Cheng and Yingxin Zhang; Writing – original draft, Hongmei Chen; Writing – review & editing, Hongmei Chen, Yongyi Fan, Dian Li, Zhihao Sun, Zheyan Ruan, Huali Yang, Yiwei Kang, Weixun Wu, Qunen Liu, Xiaodeng Zhan, Liyong Cao, Ming Zhou, Shihua Cheng and Yingxin Zhang.”
with
“Conceptualization, S.C. and Y.Z.; Formal analysis, H.C. and Y.F.; …………………………..” All the names and surnames have to be written just with capital letters.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise the manuscript. We would like to express our most sincere gratitude to the editors and reviewers for their great efforts to our manuscript. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in revision model in the paper (on green background). The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are in the attachment. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
1. In the Introduction section: please add more information related to the key environmental factors that regulate tiller number, such as spaces availability for rice growing and sunlight interception, and also associate the environmental factor to the QTLs. Because in your introduction just give information only for water and nitrogen availability.
2. In the Methodology section: please describe detailly how did you measure the tiller number: by manual counting or with the devices.
3. Please add Conclusion section in the manuscript.
4. Additional specific comments for the manuscript:
a. What is the main question addressed by the research? Yes, the main question is addressed by the research.
b. Is it relevant and interesting? Yes, it is relevant and interesting but need to improve the information in the introduction section.
c. How original is the topic? The topic is original.
d. What does it add to the subject area compared with other published material? The subject is advance compared with other published material.
e. Is the paper well written? Yes, need improvement how they display the results.
f. Is the text clear and easy to read? Yes.
g. Are the conclusions consistent with the evidence and arguments presented? There is no conclusion section in the manuscript. Please add the conclusion section.
h. Do they address the main question posed? Yes.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise the manuscript. We would like to express our most sincere gratitude to the editors and reviewers for their great efforts to our manuscript. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in revision model in the paper (on gray background). The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are in the attachment. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Manuscript entitled “Genetic Dissection of Tiller Number qTN4 in Rice” by Chen et al. address the study of qTN4.1 and qTN4.2 in rice, and its relationship to the tiller number.
The authors have made a considerable considerable improvement in the manuscript but there are still things to modify to make this work suitable for publication.
Line 258. Please check “Figure 1”. I think that "Figure 1" should be "Figure 5A-D".
Line 272. Please check “Figure 5”. I think that "Figure 5" should be "Figure 5E-H".
Line 379. Please check “Figure 6A”. I think that "Figure 6A" should be "Figure 7A".
Figure S1 legend. Please correct “1cm” with “1 cm”.
Tables S3 and S4. Please change commas to dots in the values of LOD, PVE and Add.
Very good revised version.
