Distribution of Two Mating-Type Idiomorphs in Commercially Cultivated Morchella sextelata Unveiling Unique Life Cycle of Morels

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments:

1. Check that all scientific names are in italics
2. Check the citations; several are missing space before the year, the Owen 1982 citation and the Xu et al. 2021 citation are not in the bibliography, others have an extra l, and some are not in chronological order
3. The way of citing in a specific text should be corrected; on lines 106 to 112, the citation is listed twice; they could indicate the year at the beginning and remove the citation at the end of the text. On lines 136 to 138, Du et al. omit the year, and at the end of the text, they put another citation, review and correct if you consider it
4. Homogenize the information. For example, they put 120PDA plates, PDA 120mm, 120mm PDA, and H2O sub-indexes.
5. The images in figure 1 do not clearly show what the authors indicate; improve the image so that the information they indicate is clear
6. In the introduction, two hypotheses are mentioned; the wording is unclear: 1st line 126 to 128 and 2nd line 130-132; the wording could be improved to make it clearer. Then, it mentions the answer to the questions (line 142): which ones? It is also not clear
7. The text at the beginning of the results section (lines 310 to 312) has already been mentioned by the authors; review the entire text and try to avoid repeating information
8. In the discussion, a question is also mentioned; the formulation of said question is also not precise (line 449)
9. Is the text from lines 577 to 579 correct?

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The writing is very interesting and will greatly help to improve our understanding of this fungus's biology.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This study provides a comprehensive and pioneering examination of the Morchella genus. The presentation and discussion of the results are both excellent, and there is clear evidence that the study offers valuable insights into the life cycle of Morchella sextelata, particularly about the distribution of mating types. This provides a basis for more effective strategies in cultivating these mushrooms. A deeper understanding of the processes will improve commercial Morchella production, making it more stable and reducing strain degeneration.

Here are some notes and questions that need clarification or resolution.

Throughout the text, when M. sextalata is mentioned, it should appear in italics (lines 30,34,36,280,289,291,310,311,395,410,420,424,461,477,484,496,511).

Lines 68 to 74 - Although collecting tissues from wild or commercial mushrooms and developing them on PDA can be a way of obtaining mushroom mycelium, obtaining pure mushroom mycelium for commercial production is not all that common. Specific laboratories are for acquiring pure mycelium and spawn (to be used in a production unit). This should never be common practice among growers, as it involves huge losses and no guarantee of quality. So this sentence needs to be rephrased.

Lines 77 to 78 - The factors indicated are not the only ones responsible for the formation of sclerocytes. All the others should be mentioned.

Lines 85-86 - It is not only in the case of morels that it is necessary to know the life cycle to improve commercial production. This knowledge is essential for all mushrooms that can be cultivated.

Row 115- Why is this different for the species to be cultivated? Justify

Line 161 - justify and substantiate the choice of this temperature for mycelium growth

Line 163 - refers to (Xu et al. 2021). But the bibliography does not mention Xu et al. 2020?

Lines 164-165 - justify the transfer of mycelium to Petri dishes

Line 166-168 - what inoculum is used to grow morchella in bags and what is the composition of the growing medium used to obtain the fruit?

Line 168 - M. sextelata in italics

Lines 296-297 - it says (strain GL0053 - 297 M1 (GL0056) and strain GL0053 -M2 (GL0057)), what is the reason for giving this nomenclature to M1 and M2? It is never referred to again in the text.

Line 314- where the stain is, strain should be

Line 342- Is the MAT1-1-1/MAT1-2-1 ratio calculated based on the data obtained from the 2 isolated strains? It is not clear how it was calculated since line 319 states that Strain GL0053-M1 only contains the MAT1-1-1 gene, while strain GL0053- 320 M2 only contains the MAT1-2-1 gene. Needs better explanation

Lines 374-385- based on the results, isn't there a possible explanation?

Lines 410-413- which mycelium was used? That of strain GL0053?

Line 533- the names of the species should be written in italics 

Lines 602-692 - In the references, all names of mushroom species should be written in italics. Check the DOI, most of them were not found, and they are not correct (references  2,3,5,7-16,19,21 and 22).

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

    The manuscript by Dezheng Zhu et al reports new information on the life cycle of Morchella sextelata, the most widely cultivated species of true morel, which has been characterised in order to improve the artificial cultivation of true morels.

     In my opinion, the manuscript is of interest, but there are a few issues (reported below) that need to be resolved before it can be published.

1- The image in figure 1 is of particular interest for this manuscript. However, it is not clearly visible. It is requested to increase the visibility of the two images, no morphological features are visible in the present figure.

2- In order to isolate the two strains (homokaryotic mycelia separation) retrieved by the authors a qPCR analysis was performed. It would be useful to show the result of the amplification to show any differences as a new figure.

3- lines 401-403: It would be useful to include data not presented by the authors also as supplementary material.

4- Species names should be in italics. Check throughout the main text

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors In my opinion, the revised manuscript has been improved. The authors have even answered my questions. So, if the editor agrees, it can be accepted for publication.
   

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf