Review Reports - Expression of a Chromoplast-Specific Lycopene β-Cyclase Gene (<i>CYC</i>-<i>B</i>) Is Implicated in Carotenoid Accumulation and Coloration in the Loquat

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Introduction - A graphic summary for recent advance of carotenoid biosynthesis in plants or fruit trees should be provided. P110 - Construct maps of the TRV2-CYC-B, TRV1 and TRV2 plasmids should be provided, respectively. Evidences for confirmation of successful transgenic events, eg southern, northern, or western blotting, should be done. A graphic summary for the role of CYC-B gene and the interaction of key genes in regulation of the carotenoid metabolic pathway in loquat should be provided.

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Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript entitled Expression of a chromoplast-specific lycopene β-cyclase (CYC-B) gene is implicated in carotenoid accumulation and coloration in the loquat” submitted to Biomolecules MDPI, under the ID: biomolecules-647068, is an interesting manuscript, overall well written and under a very important and actual thematic.

However. There are some improvements required that will be listed:

Some minor English improvements. Such as: Line 17; line 85 (be careful with the beginning of sentences); lines 101-102. Some of the acronyms that appear in the text are not clarified. The material and methods need to be more detailed. For example in section 2.6 there is no indication of the concentrations used in the PCR reaction. More there is no reference to the number of replicates used in all the determinations. Some of the issues raised in the result and discussion section may be due to a low number of samples, but it is difficult to say so since there is no clear idea of the sample number used for each section. Results: the sequence of the cloned CYC-B gene and protein structure should be presented, if not in the manuscript, as a supplement. Figure 5 should be improved.

Some figures could be joined as a plate.

The discussion and explanation of some results require a more detailed material and methods to understand their significance .