The Potential Roles of the N and P Supplies on the Internal Browning Incidence in Sweet Cherries in the Southern Chile

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. The review is novel and valuable for the related research field but unfortunately it has errors in grammar and layout throughout the manuscript. Hence, it must be improved before it can be published.

2. A conclusive graph for presenting the key theme is suggested to enhance its readability and attractiveness.

3. L18: The Southern Chile - Southern Chile

4. L28: a highly phosphorus (P) fixation - a high phosphorus (P) fixation

5. L53: to protect orchards from rains - to protect orchards from rain

6. Tables 1 & 2: The layout and grammar should be improved. Scientific names should be in italics. Specie - Species; Effect - Effects

7. Add some photos of iconic plants, fruits, and most importantly the internal browning for sweet cherries in Southern Chile.

8. L321: southern Chile - Southern Chile

9. Table 2: Check this sentence "Higher concentration of anthocyanins in shhots"

10. Please rewrite it "Besides N, P supply is a key factor for fruit crop management due to it not only affects fruit yield but also modulates the production of soluble solids and secondary metabolites, including ascorbic acids and phenols."

Author Response

Temuco 21 November 2022

Editor of Horticulturae

Editorial Office of Horticulturae

Dear Editor of Horticultarae,

We have revised the manuscript entitled "The Potential Role of N and P Supply on the Internal Browning Incidence in Sweet Cherries in the Southern Chile" by C. Palacios- Peralta, Reyes-Díaz, M., J. Gonzalez-Villagra, and A. Ribera- Fonseca.

We would be very grateful if you would consider for publication in Horticulturae. The detailed answers to each point raised by the reviewers are below.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Major comments

1)-Title: As the work in devoted to the production of sweet cherry in Chile it is necessary to add ‘in the Southern Chili’ to the title

2)-Keywords: no words about cherry storage and browning

3)-Introduction:  To attract the attention of readers it is highly desirable to indicate nutritional and health benefits of sweet cherry. In this respect at least two valuable references should be discussed and added:

a) D. S. Kelley, Y. Adkins, K. D. Laugero A Review of the Health Benefits of Cherries Nutrients. 2018,10(3): 368. doi: 10.3390/nu10030368

b) L M. McCune, Chieri Kubota,Nicole R. Stendell-Hollis,Cynthia A. ThomsonCherries and Health: A ReviewCritical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition Vol 51, 2010 - Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1080/10408390903001719

4)-Discussion

It is necessary to enumerate other methods for preventing fruit browning and compare their efficiency with N and P supply: chitosan, modified atmosphere of storage, aminobutyric acid. See: 

‘K. Ruzickova, M Leitgeb The Role Of Browning Enzymes In Cherries/ Acta Innovations 2021 38(38):12-22DOI: 10.32933/ActaInnovations.38.2

-Indicate what methods of sweet cherry browning prevention are used in Chile

- as selenium supplementation is known to slow down senescence theoretically such an approach may also give a positive effect. See

Groth S, Budke C, Neugart S, Ackermann S, Kappenstein FS, Daum D, Rohn S. Influence of a Selenium Biofortification on Antioxidant Properties and Phenolic Compounds of Apples (Malus domestica). Antioxidants (Basel). 2020, 24;9(2):187. doi: 10.3390/antiox9020187. 

5) Abstract 

Taking into account the importance of comparison of different methods efficiency for prevention fruit browning I should recommend to make appropriate changes not only in the text but also in the Abstract and indicate the unusual approach of the authors about the importance of N and P supply optimization. 

6)- References

Reference list should be carefully checked according to the authors guidelines:

Each reference should contain abbreviated journal title (see ref 55), volume number, pages (no pages in ref 121) and doi. -Don’t use Internet sites, like ‘Available online….’ (see ref 34, 39, 41 etc)

-there is no article title in Ref 23 and this reference contains the names of the authors but not their surnames

- no article title in ref 142

-don’t use capital letters in the articles titles (see ref 27, etc)

Minor comments

1)Line 116  - check style  ‘due to it may …’

2) Line 204 change ‘NO3−, the highest dose (15 mol m-3)’ to ‘N0₃^-, the highest dose (15 Mol m^-3)

3)The same in Table 1 ‘NH4NO3’ and line 315 ‘mg kg-1 '

4)Al Latin names of plants should be written in Italics (Tables 1,e and References)

Line 258 ‘phosphite (Phi), a salt of phosphorous acid absorbed and transferred in a way similar to inorganic P’- a misprint: a salt of phosphoric acid is phosphate!!!!

Author Response

Temuco 21 November 2022

Editor of Horticulturae

Editorial Office of Horticulturae

Dear Editor of Horticultarae,

We have revised the manuscript entitled "The Potential Role of N and P Supply on the Internal Browning Incidence in Sweet Cherries in the Southern Chile" by C. Palacios- Peralta, Reyes-Díaz, M., J. Gonzalez-Villagra, and A. Ribera- Fonseca.

We would be very grateful if you would consider for publication in Horticulturae. The detailed answers to each point raised by the reviewers are below.

Sincerely Yours,

Dr. Alejandra Ribera-Fonseca and Dra. Marjorie Reyes-Díaz

Corresponding authors

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors and Editors,

Based on the title, the topic of the review is the examination of a certain postharvest physiological problem, namely the internal browning incident of sweet cherry. The abstract reveals that this is mainly about the production in Chile. The manuscript contains a large number of references that are not strictly or directly related to the topic, and also the article itself does not deal closely with the topic indicated in the title.

The topic of the article is based on the assumption that the N and P content of the soil can influence the antioxidant content of sweet cherries, which reduces the probability of browning incidence. In order to support or refute this assumption, investigations would be needed with soil samples were taken from sweet cherry plantations, their N and P content, as well as the antioxidant content of the sweet cherry fruits were analyzed, and a correlation was sought between these and browning incidence.

The review article does not describe the results of a single experiment similar to the above procedure, rather it tries to prove the assumption with a kind of investigative method based on the results of experiments with a wide variety of fruit and vegetable plants. Another disadvantage of the manuscript is that it contains many unidentifiable references. Nevertheless, the manuscript also contains a lot of interesting and useful information.

I propose the rejection of the manuscript in its present form, and I encourage the authors to change the subject of the review, i.e. to choose a broader topic (e.g. “nutritional disorders and antioxidant content of plants” or “antioxidant content and resilience of plants”, etc.), and to write a thorough review that focus more on the given topic.

Author Response

Temuco 21 November 2022

Editor of Horticulturae

Editorial Office of Horticulturae

Dear Editor of Horticultarae,

We have revised the manuscript entitled "The Potential Role of N and P Supply on the Internal Browning Incidence in Sweet Cherries in the Southern Chile" by C. Palacios- Peralta, Reyes-Díaz, M., J. Gonzalez-Villagra, and A. Ribera- Fonseca.

We would be very grateful if you would consider for publication in Horticulturae. The detailed answers to each point raised by the reviewers are below.

Sincerely Yours,

Dr. Alejandra Ribera-Fonseca and Dra. Marjorie Reyes-Díaz

Corresponding authors

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript has been revised and I have no further questions.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thanks for your help in improving our manuscript.

Best wishes,

Dr. Marjorie Reyes and Dr. Alejandra Ribera

Corresponding authors

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

There are only some minor comments:

1)Keywords: delete numbers

2)Line 345 ‘can decrease’ change to ‘can be decreased’

3)The Reference list should be revised: 1) use journals abbreviations, 2) use bold letters for the year of publication, 3) use Italics for the Journals’ titles and volumes

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thanks for your help, valuable comments, and corrections, which helped to improve our manuscript.

Best wishes,

Dr. Marjorie Reyes and Dr. Alejandra Ribera

Corresponding authors

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors and Editors,

I understand that sweet cherry browning incidence is a major problem. However, the vast majority of the references are not based on the results of experiments with sweet cherry, but with other fruits and vegetables. Only Sections 1 and 6 deal with sweet cherry production in Chile.

Section 2 “Physiological and Biochemical traits of Internal Browning in Fresh Fruits” explains the topic stated in the title very well, but it should be noted that most of the references are not based on sweet cherry research. Section 3 “Non-Enzymatic Antioxidant Compounds in Sweet Cherry Fruits.” has content corresponding to the title.

Section 4 “Nitrogen Excess could Reduce Quality, Condition and Antioxidant Levels in Fruits” is also an informative chapter in itself, but at the same time it is quite clear that the references contain only traces of information about sweet cherry, and Table 1 belonging to the chapter also shows facts about the most diverse plants apart from sweet cherry.

Section 5 describes results for strawberry, cucumber, apple, nectarine, and the related Table 2 does not include any reference to sweet cherry. Sweet cherry is mentioned only in one place in this section in connection with the Chitosan treatment, which is also not the topic of N and P supply in the title. At the end of the section, only references 44, 144, and tangentially 146 are valid (83 - no N or P supply, 89 - no antioxidant or phenolic composition, 83 - again, 143 – no antioxidant or phenolic composition), but these do not examine sweet cherry either.

Section 6 deals with the N and P content of Chilean soils and sweet cherry production, but does not provide any evidence that soil N and P supply is related to the sweet cherry browning incident.

The sections are put together like a patchwork and do not give a complete picture of what is stated in the title. By omitting some parts and expanding other parts, a more coherent text should be created, with a more suitable title.

Additional comments:

In line 56, the sentence does not continue after "however".

According to line 100-102, "fertilization doses of calcium (Ca), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) can reduce IB in fresh fruits such as peaches [43–45]." –Reference 43 does not mention fertilization (it is about enzymatic browning of apple as a function of phenolic compounds) and reference 45 describes the effect of Ca spray on sweet cherry fruit quality and post-harvest storage, but only deals only with browning of stem and pedicel, and not fruit.

In line 361, the title of the next section is stuck.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thanks for your help, valuable comments, and corrections, which helped to improve our manuscript (please see the attachment with our responses).

Best wishes,

Dr. Marjorie Reyes and Dr. Alejandra Ribera

Corresponding authors

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 3

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors and Editors,

The authors made sufficient improvements, so I recommend to accept it.