Exogenous Application of Methyl Jasmonate Enhanced the Cold Tolerance of Jasminum sambac through Changes in Metabolites and Antioxidants
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear Editors and Authors,
I read with interest the manuscript entitled “Foliar Application of Methyl Jasmonate Enhanced Cold Tolerance of Jasminum sambac through Changes in Metabolites and Antioxidants”. In this study, different concentrations of MeJA were adopted to treat J. sambac seedlings in this study, and the impacts of MeJA on the cold resistance were evaluated by measuring the physiological indexes changes in the leaves of seedlings at different days after treatment, in order to provide a new inspiration for the in-depth study of the cold resistance mechanism and the cultivation of J. sambac. Therefore, the manuscript needs some adjustments so that it can then be forwarded to the publication process. The manuscript has the potential for publication in the journal Horticulturae and needs the following adjustments:
TITLE
- Replace “Foliar application” with “exogenous application”.
ABSTRACT
- Add information about the analyzed variables, study location... The results are described without mentioning the methodology. This needs to be reviewed.
- In the conclusion, mention what was the appropriate treatment for MeJa.
- There are some keywords that are repeated in the title. I suggest replacing these words.
INTRODUCTION
- The objective needs to be revised. There is a lot of information. It needs to be clear and objective. Redo. The objective inserted in the Abstract must be similar.
- I suggest inserting some hypotheses for the research. This information must be inserted in the last paragraph, before the objectives.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
- It is necessary to enter information about the study location. Enter geographic coordinates.
- Were measurements of growth, gas exchange, among others, taken? The number of variables analyzed is low.
RESULTS
- There was only a comparison of treatments individually on each day. And the comparison between the evaluated days was not made? If possible, I suggest you enter this information. In this case, in addition to lowercase letters, the figures will also have capital letters.
DISCUSSION
- What would be the explanation for the results not changing over the days? What can be explained here?
- Review some excerpts that are not directly related to the work. Many studies were cited, but the result found requires possible reasons for it to occur.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe article presents some flaws that must be addressed before publication. My main concern is about the experimental design. The study lacks important controls, such as the normal temperature + MeJa treatments, as well as the low temperature + distilled water. To assess the effects of temperature and MeJa, authors should have used a two-way factorial scheme, with all combinations among factors (temperature and MeJa). Moreover, authors do not properly justify the temperature range used in the study, as for several species, even the CK temperature used (15 °C /10 °C day/night) can be considered low. Data is superficial, and authors should also evaluate plant biomass, cold damages, etc.
Further comments can be found in the PDF file and are presented below:
· Authors must better describe experimental conditions in the abstract: what temperatures were tested? What MeJa concentrations? What was the experimental design?
· Several parts are lacking their respective references. Please, provide a reference for the information presented in lines 36-38; 42-43; 45-49; 68-70; 308-312.
· The introduction must provide the temperature range in which the species was already studied.
· Line 90: Please, specify the number of seedlings, as "several" is too general.
· Why did authors choose 7 °C /2 °C day/night as cold stress, and 15 °C /10 °C day/night as normal temperature? No evidence is provided to support this.
· Please, better explain how the MeJa treatments were applied to plants. Nutrient solution? Leaf spray? How much was applied?
· Why did authors did not evaluate plant biomass and cold damages? It is essential to determine cold tolerance.
· Units must be corrected from mg/g FW to mg g-1 FW, for example. This applied to all units.
· The font size of figures is to small, please, increase it.
· In the conclusion, authors state that increases in the chlorophyll content of J. sambac leaves, which is beneficial to photosynthesis. However, they did not measure photosynthesis of plants and, thus, this conclusion cannot be drawn.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
The text require English revision as it sound oddly in some parts (examples were highlighted in the revised version).
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe reviewed manuscript, horticulturae-3062766, is dedicated to the study of the impact of methyl jasmonate on the cold resistance of jasmine. This is an experimental study that presents original results and, in my opinion, will be interesting for readers.
Comments:
- For a complete study, treatment at a "low temperature + 0 μmol·L-1 MeJA" is missing.
- Figures are expected to appear after the first mention in the text. For example, lines 170 and 223.
- Increase the text size in the Figures.
- Please check the error bars in the Figures.
Comments on the Quality of English Language
Minor editing of the English language is required.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis paper describes the effect of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) application on cold tolerance of Jasminum sambac shrub. The work is interesting and the findings are novel. The results and discussion section is well-written. However, there are concerns in the Materials and Methods section that should be addressed as described below.
Some parts of the section Materials and Methods lack information about experimental procedures or conditions.
2.1. Overview of Plant Materials and Experimental Conditions: What is the plant age used in this study?
2.2. Experimental Desing and Sample Collection: it is difficlut to fully understand the experimental design and samling times. Providing an illustration of experimehtal timeline will help for the reader. Is it possible to such illustration as a figure? How were the seedlings treated with MeJA? Was the surface of seedlings sprayed with MeJA solution or were roots of seedlings immersed into MeJA solution?
2.3. 2.3. Measurement of Physiological Indices: The authors took the way to cite references (for example, Wang's 2006 book) for explanation of measuments of metabolites and eznsymes. However, this way is insufficient. Information about more detailed procedures and/or conditions of measurements should be provided.
2.3. Soluble protein content: What is the sample? Leaves or whole seedlings?
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageThere are many typographical errors throughout the manuscript. Belows are examples. Hyphen and en dash are incorrectly using. Unity of the use of comma before the conjunction in a list of three or more words is lacking.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear,
The authors made the corrections and accepted the suggestions.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsAuthors have addressed most of the previously raised concerns. However, some points still need revision.
1) I suggested authors to add information from the literature about the temperature range used for J. sambac in the introduction. Nonetheless, authors only added unpublished data, which is not appropriate for the introduction section. Thus, authors must remove the unpublish information from the introduction section (lines 52-56), and place it in the material and methods section. Moreover, I still recommend authors to cite ARTICLES that report temperatures already used for J. sambac, or in case there are no studies, it must be stressed.
2) Line 107: specify what were the MeJa concentrations.
3) Line 121: Table legend can start directly with “Experimental design…”.
4) Figures 1, 2, and 3 still present incorrect units (mg/g FW; nmol/g; U/g) and must be corrected (mg g-1 FW; nmol g-1; U g-1).
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe manuscript has been improved.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
