Post-Harvest Non-Conventional and Traditional Methods to Control Cadophora luteo-olivacea: Skin Pitting Agent of Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa (A. Chev.)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Actinidia deliciosa is an interesting fruit, the main problem of which is consumption at the time of optimal consumption. The lack of a properly set date of consumption discourages many consumers from using this fruit. In order to convince people to eat it, the fruit should remain of high quality for a long time. Any alternative protection method, even if it is not as effective as the chemical method, should be considered and taken into account. The research is in line with the current trends in assessing the use of alternative methods of crop protection. Work is of great value to the practice and may be the reason for further research. Each work carried out in this area of research brings us closer to finding optimal solutions for product safety and health.

Author Response

We thank Reviewer 1 for his/her precious comments, and we completely agreed with him/her.

Reviewer 2 Report

In my opinion, the submitted manuscript is interesting, and valuable because offers new possibilities for the safe protection of fruits against pathogens, during a shelf period. The idea of using "natural" enemies of pathogens is not a novelty. However, every research and result in this field can broad knowledge about the protection of fruits, and help to limit chemicals during the post-harvest phase.

1) I highly recommend using the appropriate name of species, formerly known as Actinidia deliciosa. According to Testolin, Huang, and Ferguson (Eds.) 2016, the correct name is Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa (A. Chev.) A. Chev.

2) According to Lines 67 - 69, the article entitled: "Alternative technologies to control postharvest diseases of kiwifruit", by Mari et al. (2015) should be cited.

I have mentioned the minor remarks below.

1) In the manuscript, plenty of words and plant names should be written in italic (e.g. Lines 3, 20, 32, 74, 81, 98, 108, 110, 151, 160, and so on...).

2) Cadophora luteo-olivacea with a hyphen (to change Lines 2, 20, 276, ...)

3) Line 264: should be "isolates"

4) Change capitals (A) and (B) (from Figure 4 and Figure caption) to small letters (a) and (b).

5) Explain the abbreviation "FT-IR spectroscopy" in Line 23 or 78.

6) References [19] and [20] in the text body do not appear in order of appearance/numbering.

Author Response

Reviewer 2

• I highly recommend using the appropriate name of species, formerly known as Actinidia deliciosa. According to Testolin, Huang, and Ferguson (Eds.) 2016, the correct name is Actinidia chinensisdeliciosa (A. Chev.) A. Chev.

We agreed with Reviewer 2. Accordingly, we corrected the Actinidia name (Lines 3, 32, 87).

• According to Lines 67 - 69, the article entitled: “Alternative technologies to control postharvest diseases of kiwifruit”, by Mari et al. (2015) should be cited.

As rightly suggested, we added the article ‘Mari et al. 2015’. (Line 73-75)

• In the manuscript, plenty of words and plant names should be written in italic (e.g. Lines 3, 20, 32, 74, 81, 98, 108, 110, 151, 160, and so on...).

We agreed with Reviewer 2. Latin words and plant names were written in italic in the text.

• Cadophora luteo-olivaceawith a hyphen (to change Lines 2, 20, 276, ...)

We agreed with Reviewer 2. Hyphen was added to C. luteo-olivacea in the text (Lines 2,20, 81,104,130, 157, 233, 262, 273, 294, 428)

• Line 264: should be “isolates”

We agreed with Reviewer 2, and we corrected it.

• Change capitals (A) and (B) (from Figure 4 and Figure caption) to small letters (a) and (b).

             We agreed with Reviewer 2, and we made the required corrections.

• Explain the abbreviation “FT-IR spectroscopy” in Line 23 or 78.

We added the explanation of the FT-IR acronym in the text (Line 23 and 84)

• References [19] and [20] in the text body do not appear in order of appearance/numbering.

We agreed with Reviewer 2. We changed the order of appearance of both references and also in the references list.

 Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This is an interesting study that investigates the effects of traditional (fungicides) and unconventional (BCAs, GRAS) treatments' efficacy to control skin pitting symptoms of kiwifruit through in vitro and in vivo assays. There are some minor comments, though, before fully suggesting publication in Horticulturae.

1. The authors should provide more relevant information in the introduction section regarding the relation between a) Aureobasidium pullulans b) Trichoderma harzianum c) Brassica nigra defatted meals in the prevention of fungi (Cadophora luteo-olivacea) proliferation.
2. How were the concentrations of the spore suspensions/ conidia/ seeds meal to water ratio selected?
3. Given that mean comparisons were performed and letter are added in the columns, there is no need to provide standard deviations/errors in the graphs, which is not considered a reliable statistical method and therefore I suggest they be deleted from the figures.
4. The captions of the figures should be written below the graphs and not above them.
5. Figure 4: The relation between the wavenumbers and the individual components should be presented in relation to certain published studies. No reference has been cited in the manuscript and the conclusion appear arbitrary.

Author Response

Reviewer 3

This is an interesting study that investigates the effects of traditional (fungicides) and unconventional (BCAs, GRAS) treatments’ efficacy to control skin pitting symptoms of kiwifruit through in vitro and in vivo assays. There are some minor comments, though, before fully suggesting publication in Horticulturae.

1. The authors should provide more relevant information in the introduction section regarding the relation between a) Aureobasidium pullulans b) Trichoderma harzianum c) Brassica nigra defatted meals in the prevention of fungi (Cadophora luteo-olivacea) proliferation.

We agreed with Reviewer 3. We added in the introduction section some information about the postharvest use of A. pullulans and T. harzianum to control mainly gray mold of kiwifruit. In this way, this part is now better connected to the Brassica nigra defatted meal section, also mainly used to control B. cinerea. (Lines 47-53)

1. How were the concentrations of the spore suspensions/ conidia/ seeds meal to water ratio selected?

The spore and cells suspension concentrations and seed meal to water were selected based on other research focused on biological control and alternative strategies. After preliminary experiments, the 10⁵ conidia ml^-1 was selected to verify the pathogen’s virulence about the pathogen spore concentration.

1. Given that mean comparisons were performed and letter are added in the columns, there is no need to provide standard deviations/errors in the graphs, which is not considered a reliable statistical method and therefore I suggest they be deleted from the figures.

We agreed with the reviewer. Therefore, the standard deviation/errors were removed from the figures.

1. The captions of the figures should be written below the graphs and not above them.

We agreed with the reviewer. Therefore, the captions of the figures were now written below the graphs.

1. Figure 4: The relation between the wavenumbers and the individual components should be presented in relation to certain published studies. No reference has been cited in the manuscript and the conclusion appear arbitrary.

We mentioned the two primary references used to interpret spectroscopic results at the very beginning of the paragraph at lines 409-410. However, to respond to the Referee’s observation, we inserted the proper reference after each spectroscopic attribution (i.e. at lines 417, 420, 422, 423, 427, 428, 430 and 433).

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx