Seed Longevity Potential Predicted by Radicle Emergence (RE) Vigor Test in Watermelon Seed Cultivars

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Abstract

Kindly check minor spelling mistake. The abstract needs a better composition of words.

Introduction

 Authors should explain why they chose Watermelon Seed specie in this work.

Material and methods

Insert the area studied in this experiment if possible.

Results

Results are well indicated.

Discussion

Could be more detailed. The lines should be more focused for highlighting the important finding of this work.

References

Strengthen the part of the discussion with 2 or 3 new references.

Conclusion

Minor language issues must be addressed to improve quality of the MS.

Author Response

Kindly check minor spelling mistake. The abstract needs a better composition of words.

We cheked the abstract and made a better composition. We added some words that explain the text better.

 

Introduction

 Authors should explain why they chose Watermelon Seed specie in this work.

It was explained why watermelon is important and used in the work in the first part of the ıntroduction.  One more sentence was added  in lines 45-46.

 

Material and methods

 

Insert the area studied in this experiment if possible.

We put a sentence (in lines (85-86).

 

Results

Results are well indicated.

Thank you.

 

Discussion

Could be more detailed. The lines should be more focused for highlighting the important finding of this work.

We added some new papers to support.

New sentences were added as in lines 219-221, and 272-276,

 

References

Strengthen the part of the discussion with 2 or 3 new references.

The references below were added,

 

Venuste, M., Chen, D., Hu, Xiaowen, Detection of seed vigour differences in Festuca sinensis seed lots. Seed Science and Technology 2022, 50, 1, 61-75. doi:10.15258/sst.2022.50.1.07

Guan, Y., Yin, M.Q., Jia, X.W., An, J.Y., Wang, C., Pan, R.H., Song, W.J., Hu, J. Single counts of radicle emergence can be used as a vigour test to predict the seedling emergence potential of wheat. Seed Science and Technology, 2018 46, 349-357.  doi: 10.15258/sst.2018.46.2.15

Tao, Q., Sun, J., Zhang, Y., Sun, X., Li, Z. Zhong, S. Sun, J. Single count of radicle emergence and mean germination estimate seed vigour of Chinese milk vetch (Astragalus sinicus). Seed Science and Technology 2022 50, 1, 47-59. 10.15258/sst.2022.50.1.06

Mavi, K Demir, I. Controlled deterioration for vigour assessment and predicting seedling growth of winter squash (Cucurbita maxima) seed lots under salt stress. New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science 2005, 33, 193-197.

 

Conclusion

Minor language issues must be addressed to improve quality of the MS.

We revised the text again and did some minor corrections.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

I believe that the subject of the work is important and interesting, and the results obtained have practical value. The manuscript is well written. I only have reservations about keywords, because most of them are repetitions of words from the title. Moreover, in the titles of tables and figures it is not necessary to specify the Latin name.

My main objection is that the experimental material is very limited. The authors tested the relationship between radicle emergence and seed longevity for only one species. They tested the reaction of 10 cultivars, but only for one species. Had the authors carried out these studies for at least three species, the results would have been of great scientific value. Currently, they have only technical value. I suggest that the authors carefully select two additional plant species and expand their research.

 

In my opinion the experimental material is too meager to merit publication in a respected international journal.

 

 

 

 

Author Response

Thank you for your suggestions and comments

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I believe that the subject of the work is important and interesting, and the results obtained have practical value. The manuscript is well written. I only have reservations about keywords, because most of them are repetitions of words from the title. Moreover, in the titles of tables and figures it is not necessary to specify the Latin name.

Artificial seed ageing, germination, hybrid seed storage, cucurbit, were added to Keywords,

We removed the latin names from the table and figure captions

 

My main objection is that the experimental material is very limited. The authors tested the relationship between radicle emergence and seed longevity for only one species. They tested the reaction of 10 cultivars, but only for one species. Had the authors carried out these studies for at least three species, the results would have been of great scientific value. Currently, they have only technical value. I suggest that the authors carefully select two additional plant species and expand their research.

Thank you for the suggestion. We have published number of papers on that matter in various species. In this paper we aimed to distinguish seed vigor among the hybrid cultivars. As you said ıt may be more species to get used. At the moment we try to test similar hypothesis in various vegetable species. 

 

In my opinion the experimental material is too meager to merit publication in a respected international journal.

In the future there will be papers with the larger number of seed lots and species. Thank you for this suggestion. We will take in to consideration.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript describes the use of root emergence as an index of watermelon seed vigor. The results show high correlations of root emergence with the parameters of germination behavior and vigor contemplated, which is offered as an alternative of practical value in the cultivation programs of this species.

 

The manuscript presents an appropriate design and is well written. Likewise, the high percentages of germination of the samples studied, allows evaluating the significance of the correlation between variables involved.

 

The following minor suggestions are made

 

Page 3, lines 93-95. It is suggested to delete images b, c and d from Figure 1.

Page 5, line 160. Remove the space (>98 %).

Page 6, lines 170-171. There is no clear trend that describes the dispersion of the points. I suggest that it be changed to a table that indicates survival in significant periods, for example 0, 30, 50 and 70.

Page 9, line 243, Remove the space in "100 %"

Page 10, line 252. Change the {7, 20, 21, 30} to parentheses.

Author Response

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Our response was explained in red.

 

The manuscript describes the use of root emergence as an index of watermelon seed vigor. The results show high correlations of root emergence with the parameters of germination behavior and vigor contemplated, which is offered as an alternative of practical value in the cultivation programs of this species.

The manuscript presents an appropriate design and is well written. Likewise, the high percentages of germination of the samples studied, allows evaluating the significance of the correlation between variables involved.

 

 

 

The following minor suggestions are made

 

Page 3, lines 93-95. It is suggested to delete images b, c and d from Figure 1.

Thank you, we removed b, c and d images in figure 1

 

Page 5, line 160. Remove the space (>98 %).

Done,

 

Page 6, lines 170-171. There is no clear trend that describes the dispersion of the points. I suggest that it be changed to a table that indicates survival in significant periods, for example 0, 30, 50 and 70.

Thank you.

The survival curves can be described as lines better than tables. Tables may contain the percentages as numbers however, in many papers we produced earlier figures were preferred. Then ıf you be tolerant to us in that issue we would like to stick on the figures as it is. One of the basic advantage of the figures is that reader can follow how seed ageing progress by the time.  But this does not easily seen in tables.

 

Page 9, line 243, Remove the space in "100 %"

Done,

Page 10, line 252. Change the {7, 20, 21, 30} to parentheses.

Done

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear Authors,

The manuscript entitled: "Seed longevity potential predicted by radicle emergence (RE) vigor test in watermelon seed cultivars" by Erkan Eren, Sıtkı Ermis, Guleda Oktem and Ibrahim Demir concerns the search for a simple and easy to perform in laboratory conditions test, that would allow to determine the vigor of artificially aged watermelon seeds.

As the authors of this manuscript have shown, a good test that is suitable for this purpose is the physiological test, which consists in examining the ability of such seeds to germinate uniformly (a sign of which is a radicle appearance) and then development correct seedlings. The research presented in this work may have practical application in testing batches of seeds intended for commercial cultivation of watermelons. In my opinion, the presented research was carried out correctly and the way they are described does not raise my doubts. In the discussion, I suggest that the authors pay more attention to the fact that the seed aging model used by them does not reflect the aging process that occurs in dried and stored seeds at low temperature.
I suggest instead of the expression "seed survival curves" to write - germination curves
Figure 1 - I propose to change the drawing caption (dependence of one feature on another)

Author Response

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.

Dear Authors,

The manuscript entitled: "Seed longevity potential predicted by radicle emergence (RE) vigor test in watermelon seed cultivars" by Erkan Eren, Sıtkı Ermis, Guleda Oktem and Ibrahim Demir concerns the search for a simple and easy to perform in laboratory conditions test, that would allow to determine the vigor of artificially aged watermelon seeds.

 

As the authors of this manuscript have shown, a good test that is suitable for this purpose is the physiological test, which consists in examining the ability of such seeds to germinate uniformly (a sign of which is a radicle appearance) and then development correct seedlings. The research presented in this work may have practical application in testing batches of seeds intended for commercial cultivation of watermelons. In my opinion, the presented research was carried out correctly and the way they are described does not raise my doubts. In the discussion, I suggest that the authors pay more attention to the fact that the seed aging model used by them does not reflect the aging process that occurs in dried and stored seeds at low temperature.

That is great comment. That is true. Artifial ageing may not be the same as natural ageing. Because seeds are stored in artificial ageing die very fast since at high temperature and moisture. However, ın natural or commercial ageing conditions are suitable to keep seeds alive for long-term so the difference among the lots may not be observed in a short storage periods. We aim in this work to compare seed survival. So we should get curves to do that. In order to get the curves to calculate (P50, half viability period) we should age seeds at high temperature and seed moistures. Otherwise we would not be able to  get the comparison of the seed lots in short period as 63 days since seeds most likely would not die by this period.

 

I suggest instead of the expression "seed survival curves" to write - germination curves

 The term ‘ seed survival curves’ describes the survival of seeds in storage but germination curves do not describe that. ‘Germination curves’ in general nominate seed germination progress against time. So It may not necessarily be related to ageing. Survival itself is a matter of life and death. So the term is perfect for that.  We used this term in many different papers. Moreover, the founder of seed ageing vaibility equation Prof E. H. Roberts and R. H. Ellis use the same term. Reference 19.

 

Figure 1 - I propose to change the drawing caption (dependence of one feature on another)

We have done that.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I accept the corrected text