Characterization of Environmental Effects on Flowering and Plant Architecture in an Everbearing Strawberry F1-Hybrid by Meristem Dissection and Gene Expression Analysis
, Rodmar Rivero 2,†, Pruthvi Balachandra Kalyandurg 3, Ramesh Raju Vetukuri 3, Ola M. Heide 4, Anita Sønsteby 2 and Sammar Khalil 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have addressed all my concerns in this version, thus I recomend to accept this manuscript. Thanks!
Author Response
We appreciate your precious time in reviewing our paper and are glad we were able to address your concerns. Thank you.
Reviewer 2 Report
Rephrase the title in another effective manner
English has to be improved in the Manuscript. Please try to improve the readability of your manuscript as possible. The author is advised to re-write the full text carefully
Introduction: The introduction is too long with more of the author's own work and reads like a review with a lot of details.
The aim is not clear in the introduction as well as the significance
The introduction is not well written. Please improve
Material and methods: The secondary issue is some missing information in the material and methods.
The materials and methods section should be more cogent; it should have more details. I would recommend explaining it in detail. Analysis should be described in detail.
Results: Rewrite to be clear
If you have more illustrative pictures of your experience, you can add them.
Figure 3: not clear
Discussion: The discussion needs to be visited. He or she brought a lot of literature reviews into the discussion without relating them to his own findings, they should discuss the findings briefly and relate them to their study.
Conclusions: Good
References: The reference section must be consistent and prepared based on Horticulturae
No extra or missing reference must be cited in the manuscript, therefore please check your references in the text and reference section and match them one by one.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Floral transition in the cultivated everbearing strawberry is a hot topic. Environmental factors including temperature, light and day length etc. can affect flowering and plant architecture. This MS examined morphogenetic effects and the activation of genes involved in floral induction and initiation in seedlings of an everbearing F1-hybrid. The results showed a strong environmental influence on meristem development and a FaSOC1 pathway similar to that in the everbearing woodland strawberry. The authors confirmed the strawberry meristem identity gene FaFUL can be used as an early indicator of floral initiation in everbearing cultivars. They also highlighted the advantages of seed-propagated F1-hybrids in genetic studies since they are genetically identical, and not biased by a previous flowering history. The results provided new insights into the relationship between the physiology and genetics of flowering that will be valuable for improving commercial strawberry production in many countries around the world. So in my opinion, this MS is meaningful and suitable for publication in Horticulturae as it be.
Author Response
We appreciate your precious time in reviewing our paper and are glad we were able to address your concerns.
Thank you.
