Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the KCS Gene Family in Yellow Horn Reveal Their Putative Function on Abiotic Stress Responses and Wax Accumulation
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have done a study related to structure, evolution, and function of KCS gene family in yellow horn. New aspects of this gene family members are revealed. In my opinion, this manuscript has a good potential to publish. However, it should be improved. My comments:
- ABSTRACT is well written
- In the INTRODUCTION, some gene names are not provided in italic format, please check the entire text of the manuscript and figures. However, the gene family name should not be provided in italic format.
- INTRODUCTION is short. It does not like research article.
- The English of the materials and methods section needs to polish.
- Please add the references of the used tools/databases in the materials and methods section.
- The details of analysis of wax accumulation in the leaves should be added to the materials and methods section.
- In the caption of figure 1, the scientific names have to be italic.
- In the first line of the section 3.4, "are" should be "is".
- The resolution of figure 3 is low. Please improve it.
- Results are repeated in the discussion section. I suggest adding this sentence to last line of the second paragraph of discussion section: "Besides, exon number can affect the expression of genes. It has been reported that genes with fewer exons are faster induced (Koralewski and Krutovsky, 2017; Heidari et al, 2022)".
- Koralewski and Krutovsky, 2017: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018055
- Heidari et al, 2022: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12102253
- Also, I recommend adding these notes to the third paragraph of discussion section: It seems that segmental replication events have more affected the KCS gene family in yellow horn and extended this gene family. Besides, mutation as well as some evolution events might subject the regulatory site (upstream or downstream site) and coding site of new members of the gene family and affect their expression patterns and function (Faraji et al, 2021; Heidari et al, 2021).
- Faraji et al, 2021: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10122597
- Heidari et al, 2021: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081651
Author Response
The reply to reviewer is in the word. Thank you!
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear appreciated Authors,
Author's paper should be accepted for publication, after minor revisions, because the paper represents a contribution to science. While quality of the
paper is very good and I suggest minor revision which are remarked.
Best regards,
NL
Author Response
The reply to reviewer is in the word. Thank you!
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The research paper entitled ‘Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the KCS gene family in yellow horn reveal their putative function on abiotic stress responses and wax accumulation’ submitted to Horticulturae MDPI fits within the general scope of the Journal. The authors conducted a nice experiment on a hot topic. I enjoyed reading the paper.
I have some minor comments and suggestions that the authors should take into consideration before accepting the paper for publication in Horticulturae MDPI.
1) The introduction is too shot and should be expanded the authors should report what is the actual status of the scientific literature and by adding a solid hypothesis before the objectives to shoe to the readers the novel aspects of the paper.
2) I urge the authors to attach all the raw data and insert them as supplementary material which will be of a big help for scientists and scholars
3) The conclusion section should be re-written it seems too short and a duplicate of the results which is not the scope of the conclusion.
Author Response
The reply to reviewer is in the word. Thank you!
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
