Construction and Phenotypic Characterization of a Recombination Inbred Line (RIL) Population from a Melo-agrestis Melon Hybrid

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Keywords

Melon is mentioned in the title, please seek a different word

 

Introduction

L48-50. Please improve the redaction. Maybe it's clearer like this:

Harmful impacts of PM on melon plants limit photosynthesis, growth, and reproduction, thus leading to yield loss and low fruit quality

L53-56. For instance, in an early study carried out by Warkentin et al., sulfur and dinocap formulations have ever be used for managing PM of field pea, and both fungicides are effective in reducing disease seventy and increasing seed weight and final yield.

Please give an example with melon. Field pea is a very different crop.

L55 seventy or severity?

 

 

Results

In Figure 5 which is resistant ?. Please clarify the information in the title of the Figure.

Discussion

L346. Field or fried ?

Author Response

Dear Reviewers and Editors,

 

Thank you very much for reviewing our manuscript “Construction and phenotypic characterization of a recombination inbred line (RIL) population from melo-agrestis melon hybrid (horticulturae-3814374)” and providing invaluable comments/suggestions. According to your comments/suggestions, we revised our manuscript and prepared point-by-point responses.

 

1. Point-by-point responses to Reviewer 1’s comments/suggestions

 

(1) Melon is mentioned in the title, please seek a different word

 

Response: Thanks for pointing this out. We have replaced melon with its latin name.

 

(2) L48-50. Please improve the redaction. Maybe it's clearer like this: Harmful impacts of PM on melon plants limit photosynthesis, growth, and reproduction, thus leading to yield loss and low fruit quality

 

Response：This revision was done accordingly.

 

(3) L53-56. For instance, in an early study carried out by Warkentin et al., sulfur and dinocap formulations have ever be used for managing PM of field pea, and both fungicides are effective in reducing disease seventy and increasing seed weight and final yield. Please give an example with melon. Field pea is a very different crop.

 

Response: Thank you for this suggestion. The mentioned information was improved in the revised manuscript accordingly.

 

(4) L55 seventy or severity?

 

Response: This error was corrected.

 

(5) In Figure 5 which is resistant? Please clarify the information in the title of the Figure.

 

Response: More detailed information was added.

 

(6) L346. Field or fried?

 

Response: Thank you very much for your reminding. Here is field, not fried. This point was corrected in the revised manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

See my comments

1. Line 48: are not limit to should be are not limited to.
2. Line 54: disease seventy is a typo and should be disease severity.
3. Line 55: have ever be used is awkward phrasing; consider were used
4. Line 63: has attracted continuously increasing attentions could be phrased more smoothly as has attracted increasing attention
5. Line 93: devasting is a typo and should be devastating
6. What was the source and race of the Podosphaera xanthiiinoculum? How was the inoculation performed? What was the disease rating scale? At how many days post-inoculation were readings taken? Was the disease index calculated? This is the central trait of the study and must be described with utmost precision to be reproducible.
7. The method referenced [26] is likely for a different crop. A precise, quantifiable method must be described for melon. How was leaf colour, size and density integrated into a single score? Was a scale used? Provide the exact scale used.
8. What was the specific outcome measured? The ratio of male to hermaphrodite flowers? The node number of the first female/hermaphrodite flower? Simply recording the occurrence is not sufficient for quantitative genetic analysis.
9. Lines 144-145:Visually assessed is not adequate. For fruit shape, peel colour, and nets, standardized, discrete categories must be defined and listed.
10. The specific criteria for assigning a plant to a category must be provided.
11. Line 148 states analysis was done with GraphPad Prism by following the rules of Shapiro-Wilk test at a significance level of 0.05. This is confusing.
12. It is unclear what statistical tests were actually performed on the data. Will you use ANOVA to test for differences between RILs? Will you calculate descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, range) for each RIL? For QTL mapping, the phenotypic data must be formatted appropriately, and the chosen statistical test must be stated.
13. The Shapiro-Wilk test is for testing normality, which is a preliminary step. The actual tests used for analysis need to be stated.
14. Line 113:The seed sterilization protocol (1.5% NaOCl + 55°C water) seems very harsh and could impact germination rates. A reference or justification for this protocol would be useful.
15. Line 116:Provide basic environmental conditions for the greenhouse (e.g., day/night temperature ranges, photoperiod or natural light conditions).
16. The binary classification of lines as simply resistant (no symptoms) or susceptible (any symptoms) is a major weakness. PM resistance is typically a quantitative trait. A more nuanced disease rating scale is essential to capture the full spectrum of resistance and to enable powerful QTL mapping.
17. The results lack any mention of the parental phenotypes. What were the PM scores for 'YJM' (susceptible parent) and 'SN-1' (resistant parent) grown alongside the RILs? This is crucial for confirming the expected phenotypic contrast and for interpreting the segregation ratio in the RILs (which appears to be a near 1:1 ratio, suggesting single gene control, but this cannot be confirmed without parental data and a proper scale).
18. The statement that 95 RILs showed "no mildew spots" (Line 272) is highly unusual for a field evaluation of a quantitative trait and suggests the scoring may have been done too early or the inoculum pressure was uneven. A truly immune response is rare.
19. For every quantitative trait (petiole length, leaf size, stem diameter, SSC, etc.), the mean values and ranges for the two parental lines ('YJM' and 'SN-1') must be reported and indicated on the figures (e.g., with arrows on the distribution graphs). This allows the reader to see if the RIL population shows transgressive segregation (values beyond the parental range), which is a key indicator of the recombination of multiple genes and is critical for QTL discovery.

 

Author Response

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to you for your careful review and valuable comments on our manuscript. Your suggestions have been of great help in improving the quality and accuracy of our work, and we have carefully addressed each comment as detailed below:

Comment：Line 48: are not limit to should be are not limited to.

Response 1：We fully agree with this comment. L48-49 We modify the original statement to "Harmful impacts of PM on melon plants limit photosynthesis, growth, and reproduc-tion thus leading to yield loss and low fruit quality, this should be more in line with your requirements

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf