Genomic Survey and Expression Analysis of GLKs in Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors
Your manuscript addresses an interesting topic. However, it is necessary to include some changes to improve its presentation and structure.
Best regards.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The main aim of the paper is to study the expression of GLKs in watermelon.
The paper shows interesting information. The experiment with plants should be described more precisely and the results should be discussed more with more comparisons with other studies.
Specific comments
Line 50. This lines from Arabidopsis which gene are overexpressing? More details are needed.
Line 63. Species of this experiment should be indicated in the text.
Line 68. Name of the author of the Latin name should be indicated the first time they appear in the text.
Line 73. This affirmation should be supported with data from previous references. If there are not why is this affirmation supported.
Line 74. No previous experiments in watermelon? Other genes with a similar effect in watermelon?
Line 122. How many plants per cultivar? Repetitions? Conditions of the greenhouse?
Line 126. At what time samples were collected in W-22-301?
Line 293. Why ClGLK8 was chosen? Why not other GLKs?
Line 324. Discussion should be added comparing these results with GLKs in other species. Do they share the same motif composition for example?
Line 344. Which effect cause in watermelon the overexpression of these GLKs due to the stress? They are more resistant?
Line 363. This overexpression of these genes cause a better response to the virus?
Line 376. Where this information come from? In watermelon?
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
In the manuscript ‘Genomic survey and expression analysis of GLKs in watermelon’ Ding et al. identified and characterized the GLKs gene family in the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus). Overall, the manuscript is well written and organized. However, the Materials and Methods section fails in describing properly some methodologies, as noted below.
· Line 121: how many plants were used for each cultivar?
· Line 133: describe how chloroplast ultrastructure was analysed
· Line 141: change to RT-qPCR and throughout the text
· Line 141: gene expression analysis poorly described. Include PCR thermocycling conditions, PCR reaction conditions
· Line 147: delta delta Ct method is not correctly presented and the bibliographic reference should be included
· Line 147: table s4 should include amplicon size and primer efficiency
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The main aim of the paper is to study the expression of GLKs in watermelon.
The paper shows interesting information. Only minor mistakes left.
Specific comments
Line 3. Name of the author of the Latin name should be indicated the first time they appear in the text. In this case Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. Y Nakai.
