Effects of Different Light Qualities and Intensities of Blue Light on Flowering and Volatiles in Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 3)

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I have reviewed the revised version of the manuscript along with the authors’ responses. The additional details and clarifications provided have resolved most of the concerns I raised earlier. The manuscript is now presented with better clarity and is more firmly grounded in the relevant literature. Overall, the revisions have strengthened the quality of the work, and I am satisfied with how the authors have addressed my comments.

Author Response

We appreciate your suggestions. Thanks to your feedback, our manuscript now provides a clearer explanation of the effects of LED lights on the flowering of Coriandrum sativum.

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors, thank you for the reply. The authors have taken into account my recommendations.
However, it is necessary to correct the titles of Tables 1-4 and Figures 3, 4.

After the edits have been made the manuscript may be accepted for publication.

 

 

Author Response

We appreciate your suggestions. We corrected the titles of Tables 1-4 and Figures 3 and 4. Thanks to your feedback, our manuscript now provides a clearer explanation of the effects of LED lights on the flowering of Coriandrum sativum.

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This research paper has a clear and reasonable structure, rigorous logic, and strong practical significance and research value. Moreover, the references are cited accurately and the format is unified and standardized. However, there are some details that need to be verified, and the conclusion needs to be further optimized. My suggestions are as follows:

1. Line 36-38: Please add relevant references after the sentence "Cryptochromes are involved in …… light photoreception".

2. Line 99: Why were the light intensity levels of 100 and 120 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹ chosen for setting up different light quality treatment groups and different blue-white light ratios? Is there any basis?

3. Line 121: There is no content about chlorophyll in the discussion. Does chlorophyll have any special meaning? Why is its concentration measured?

4. Line 287: The title of an article should echo the conclusion. The title mentioned the impact of blue light on plants, while the conclusion indicated that different light treatments were used to achieve specific cultivation goals. If blue light is emphasized, what is the scientific significance of the trait changes caused by this condition? For example, does promoting flowering contribute to the reproduction of cilantro? Meanwhile, the article mentioned optimizing the planting strategy. If it could clarify in the conclusion what production significance each trait caused by different light quality treatments has or what aspects they are applicable to, such as being edible, attracting insects for pollination or promoting self-reproduction as mentioned in the introduction, then the article would have greater application value.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Despite the relevance and importance of the problem under study, I have a number of comments and recommendations for the manuscript.

1. Keywords shouldn't repeat words in the title of manuscript.
2. In the 'Introduction' section, the authors are show should the problems in the present direction of the study for Cilantro sativum. Authors should indicate the scientific novelty of their research in this section. It is advisable to adjust the purpose of the study taking into account the relevance, novelty and practical significance of the work. In addition, general information about properties of Cilantro sativum should be reduced by 40-50%
3. My main comments are related to the section "Materials and methods". For what period of studies are the data presented? The design of the experiment is not clearly shown. A detailed revision is required. It is better to present the scheme of the experiment in the Figure form. In addition, the designs of experiment don’t match the title of this study (Authors investigate and other spectra’s, such as white, red, and green), see experiments 1-3. I have doubts about the correctness of the experiment (subsection 2.2 and 2.3). For what period of ontogenesis of plants are physio-biochemical studies conducted? The authors should accurately specify the period of growing plants in a walk-in growth room. The subsection 'Statistical analysis' needs to be presented as a distinct subsection. In addition, authors should provide a detailed description of the statistical analysis methods.

4. The captions under Figures 1-6 do not correspond to the journals Q1. Line 156-157, 161-63, 173-175, 189-191, 194-195, 205-206 corresponds to the "Short Results". Line 178-179 corresponds to the "Materials and methods". The Fig. 1C and Line 187 corresponds to the "Materials and methods". The subsection 3.3. «Analysis of Cilantro plant growth grown under various intensities of blue supplementary light» had insufficient information presented. The 'Results' section needs to be improved by considering the statistical analysis of the results.
5. The authors write about the pigment complex in «Results» section. Why do the authors indicate nothing on this issue in «Discussion» section?

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript by Kim et al. aimed to characterise the effect of blue light on flowering acceleration and volatile accumulation in Cilantro sativum. The topic is relevant in the context of controlled-environment agriculture, LED-based cultivation systems, and functional crop optimisation. While the study is methodologically sound from a physiological point of view, it has an essential limitation as it does not sufficiently investigate and/or explain the underlying mechanisms of the effect of blue light on Cilantro sativum. In general, the phenotypic data are presented (i.e. leaf number, height, number of flowers), chlorophylls, and phenolic compounds content, while no attempt is made to investigate the biochemical, molecular, and/or cellular processes that explain the effectiveness and/or mechanism of blue light effect. As a result, the manuscript lacks the scientific depth necessary to contribute meaningfully to the broader understanding of the role of this wavelength in this or related species. From a scientific point of view, the novelty of the work is modest.

The content-related concerns are as follows:

Title - is too general, whereas it should higlight the discoveries of this study.

Abstract - the present form of the abstract is a bit chaotic, focused mainly on what was done in the study. The aim should be more precisely stated. The novel aspects of the research, as demonstrated by specific examples, should also be highlighted in the context of already published data. The abstract should end with a concise but precise summary of core novel findings and the relevance of the work. 

Introduction - more info and suitable references about the role of light and light signalling in the plant life cycle is required. For example, authors investigated various light spectra, but in the introduction, they focus mainly on blue light and its receptors. The effect of various light wavelengths on plant growth and development, including biomass production, and synthesis/accumulation of phenolic compounds and/or other secondary metabolites, is already well documented, and some references have been indicated herein. On the other hand, in the Introduction, there is a lack of references explaining the mechanisms by which various types of light regulate processes occurring in plants.

Material and Methods - the choice of coriander as a model plant is appropriate and is an advantage of this study.

In general, this section is poorly described. It should contain more details about the chemicals used (i.e. concentration, pH), the characteristics of the following steps in the procedures, number of biological and technical replicates, how the calculations of chlorophylls and phenolic compounds were done, etc. It is important, especially in the context of protocols with references from 1979, which may not be accessible to the readers

What was the mass of each sample of leaves that was selected for biochemical analyses of chlorophyll and phenolic compounds?

What was the size (mass?) of fully opened flowers used for the determination of volatile compounds?

Whether analyses allowing the determination of the mechanism of action of applied light wavelengths have been performed? The manuscript would benefit from exploring the underlying biochemical, molecular, or cellular mechanisms that could explain i.e., how blue light has these beneficial effects on flowering, etc.

Discussion - the present discussion is not well written, and does not properly explain how the particular light has different effects on flowering, chlorophyll and phenolic compounds content, biomass production and/or the mechanism of their action.