Effect of Red Visible Lighting on Postharvest Ripening of Bananas via the Regulation of Energy Metabolism
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It is an interesting work that uses LED red light as a strategy for the ripening and energy metabolism of bananas, where appropriate methodologies are exposed and it is a current topic that may be interesting for the readers of this journal. However, I make the following observations of the document that must be addressed:
L105-108, 110-114 "...and placed in banana preservation boxes at an am-105 bient humidity of 75.0 ± 5.0 % and a temperature of 20.0 ± 0.1℃ for storage. No additional light was applied to the box during this period, and exogenous light pollution was avoided by a shading cloth" Repetitive sentences in all treatments, if they were the same storage conditions, they could be described in paragraph L115, which speaks of similar conditions for the three treatments.
L118: "liquid nitrogen freezer at -40.0℃" should describe the brand and model of the equipment used.
L121-122 "soluble solids content (SSC)," in the manuscript by Xin et al. [14] did not determine soluble solids content. Xin et al measured soluble sugar content; Please explain what you determined.
L175: "Leammli et al [16]." misquote, correct by Laemmli[16]. The original manuscript has no co-authors.
L194: "MehrabaniL V et al [18]" Citation error, please correct by Mehrabani and Hassanpouraghdam[16].
L195-196: "Pure New Zealand white rabbits were selected as immune animals in the experiment." They must have a permit from a bioethics committee for the handling of experimental animals, please add the permit number.
L227-228: They must specify the level of confidence used to establish if there are statistical differences.
L238-239: "with no significant color differences between the ET and RL groups." This statement is not correct, since in Fig 1B on days 6 and 8, both ET and RL have different literals (b and a, respectively), please correct the wording.
L354: "soluble solids" check if they are solids or sugar.
L372: "The trend in the rate of respiration showed a positive correlation" cannot ensure a positive correlation, when no correlation analysis was done. Please correct the wording.
L432; "showing strong negative correlations with energy metabolism" same case, he cannot affirm this, when he did not do correlation analysis. Please correct wording.
Author Response
Response Letter
Dear editor:
Thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise our manuscript entitled “Effect of red visible lighting on postharvest ripening of bananas via the regulation of energy metabolism” (ID: horticulturae-2502316).
We have revised our manuscript carefully according to the comments, and would like to re-submit it for your consideration. The amendments are highlighted in red font in the revised manuscript. Our responses to the referees are listed by point to point in the following sections. If there are any deficiencies in this manuscript modification, we will fully cooperate to editor and revise it again in the next time.
We would like to express our great appreciation to you and reviewers for the comments and hope that revised manuscript is acceptable.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Bangdi Liu
Academy of Agricultural Planning and Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China
PO Box 111, No. 41 Maizidian Road, Beijing, 100083, China
E-mail: [email protected]
Reply to Referees
to Referees 1
Question1: L105-108, 110-114 "...and placed in banana preservation boxes at an am-105 bient humidity of 75.0 ± 5.0 % and a temperature of 20.0 ± 0.1℃ for storage. No additional light was applied to the box during this period, and exogenous light pollution was avoided by a shading cloth" Repetitive sentences in all treatments, if they were the same storage conditions, they could be described in paragraph L115, which speaks of similar conditions for the three treatments.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have modified in the paper, deleted the part of repeated description, and only described in paragraph L115.
Question2: L118: "liquid nitrogen freezer at -40.0℃" should describe the brand and model of the equipment used.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, we have modified in the paper. (Stored in DW-86L388J ultra-low temperature storage box (Qingdao Haier Medical Co., LTD., China, -80.0℃) to determine other indicators.)
Question3: L121-122 "soluble solids content (SSC)," in the manuscript by Xin et al. [14] did not determine soluble solids content. Xin et al measured soluble sugar content; Please explain what you determined.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, we have modified it. We have reviewed and replaced the references.
Question4: L175: "Leammli et al [16]." misquote, correct by Laemmli[16]. The original manuscript has no co-authors.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, we have mended "Leammli et al [16]" to "Laemmli[16]".
Question5: L194: "MehrabaniL V et al [18]" Citation error, please correct by Mehrabani and Hassanpouraghdam[16].
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have amended "MehrabaniL V et al [18]" to "Mehrabani and Hassanpouraghdam[18]".
Question6: L195-196: "Pure New Zealand white rabbits were selected as immune animals in the experiment." They must have a permit from a bioethics committee for the handling of experimental animals, please add the permit number.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, we have added the license number to the methods section of the article.
Question7: L227-228: They must specify the level of confidence used to establish if there are statistical differences.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have recalculated and identified a statistical difference at L227-228，and made a clear note.
Question8: L238-239: "with no significant color differences between the ET and RL groups." This statement is not correct, since in Fig 1B on days 6 and 8, both ET and RL have different literals (b and a, respectively), please correct the wording.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, we have re-compared with the figure and modified.
Question9: L354: "soluble solids" check if they are solids or sugar.
Response:Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have checked that "soluble solids" is measured in sugar content and has been described in Method 2.2.2
Question10: L372: "The trend in the rate of respiration showed a positive correlation" cannot ensure a positive correlation, when no correlation analysis was done. Please correct the wording.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have checked the original text and corrected the wording.
问题11：L432;“与能量代谢表现出强烈的负相关”同样的情况，当他没有做相关性分析时，他无法肯定这一点。请更正措辞。
回应：感谢审稿人的建议，我们检查了原文并更正了措辞。
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Manuscript ID: horticulturae-2502316
This study investigated the effect of LED red light irradiation on post-harvest banana ripening. The researchers continuously irradiated mature-green bananas and monitored various physiological parameters related to ripening over an 8-day storage period at a controlled temperature. The results revealed that red light-irradiated bananas exhibited higher color changes, increased rates of chlorophyll degradation, and enhanced carotenoid synthesis compared to bananas treated with the ripening agent ethephon. The red light irradiation primarily promoted ripening and senescence by stimulating carotenoid synthesis, capturing light energy, accelerating energy metabolism, and enhancing the activities of respiratory and energy metabolism-related enzymes, as well as facilitating organic acid degradation.
It is an interesting study that involved experiments to assess the quality of bananas after being irradiated under red light, their physicochemical properties, and enzymatic analyses such as respiration rate, ethylene release, texture, color, carotenoid content, chlorophyll content, adenosine triphosphate content, and activities of energy metabolism-related enzymes.
1. Please provide more detail of Brazil bananas (Musa sp. cv. Brazil), such as AA Group, AAB Group or any other in the 2.1 Materials and reagents; line 88.
2. The authors chose red light irradiation treatment for this experiment. What is the rationale behind selecting red light irradiation treatment?
3. Why did the authors expose banana fruits to the red LED for 24 hours?
4. Lines 99-100: Why were the bananas placed in a preservation box? Was the box open or closed after the red LED treatment?
5. Lines 101-102: ‘No additional light was applied to the box during this period, and exogenous light pollution was avoided by a shading cloth’. Why were the bananas not exposed to white light? Generally, in addition to darkness, white light is used as a reference control.
6. Fig 1(A): Please illustrate the size of the banana fruits to be larger, as the characters currently appear larger than the size of the banana fruits. This correction would make the figure more appealing.
7. The Results and Discussion sections should be written on the basis of the results and the obtained statistically significant differences.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Minor editing of English language required
Author Response
Response Letter
Dear editor:
Thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise our manuscript entitled “Effect of red visible lighting on postharvest ripening of bananas via the regulation of energy metabolism” (ID: horticulturae-2502316).
We have revised our manuscript carefully according to the comments, and would like to re-submit it for your consideration. The amendments are highlighted in red font in the revised manuscript. Our responses to the referees are listed by point to point in the following sections. If there are any deficiencies in this manuscript modification, we will fully cooperate to editor and revise it again in the next time.
We would like to express our great appreciation to you and reviewers for the comments and hope that revised manuscript is acceptable.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Bangdi Liu
Academy of Agricultural Planning and Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China
PO Box 111, No. 41 Maizidian Road, Beijing, 100083, China
E-mail: [email protected]
Reply to Referees
to Referees 2
Question1: Please provide more detail of Brazil bananas (Musa sp. cv. Brazil), such as AA Group, AAB Group or any other in the 2.1 Materials and reagents; line 88.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have checked the original text and corrected the wording.
Question2: The authors chose red light irradiation treatment for this experiment. What is the rationale behind selecting red light irradiation treatment?
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, This study was carried out on the basis of previous studies. It was found in previous studies that 640 ~ 700 nm red light irradiation could rapidly promote post-ripening of bananas compared with other colors (Liu et al.[13].) Therefore, 655.0 ± 1.0 nm red light irradiation was used in this study.
Question3: Why did the authors expose banana fruits to the red LED for 24 hours?
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have described in the method part that the banana is continuously exposed to the red LED light, and it is not only processed for 24h. In order to facilitate readers' understanding, we have modified the description of this paragraph in the method part to avoid readers' misunderstanding. The reason for the continuous red light treatment is because we found in previous studies that this light treatment can effectively promote banana ripening.
Question4: Lines 99-100: Why were the bananas placed in a preservation box? Was the box open or closed after the red LED treatment?
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, Bananas are placed in the crisper in order to have the same storage environment as RL and ET groups. The box is closed, as indicated in L101-102.
Question5: Lines 101-102: ‘No additional light was applied to the box during this period, and exogenous light pollution was avoided by a shading cloth’. Why were the bananas not exposed to white light? Generally, in addition to darkness, white light is used as a reference control.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We did not use white light as a control in this study because we found that white light had no obvious effect in previous studies. In addition, white light is also a mixed light source, and we believe that it does not have a contrast. Our previous research paper compared the effects of 6 different light sources of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple on banana ripening, and found that red light was the most effective treatment to promote ripening, so this study was based on that result. If experts are interested in the results, you can read this article.（Liu, B., Zhang, Y., Ke, Z., Sun, J., Zhou, X., Sun, J. Effects of LED light on the ripening regulation of green mature banana during storage and transportation. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, 2021, 37, 295-302. https://doi.org/10.11975/j.issn.1002-6819.2021.20.033. (in Chinese)）
Question6: Fig 1(A): Please illustrate the size of the banana fruits to be larger, as the characters currently appear larger than the size of the banana fruits. This correction would make the figure more appealing.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have modified Figure 1 to enlarge the fruit size so that the fruit appearance can be seen more clearly.
Question7: The Results and Discussion sections should be written on the basis of the results
and the obtained statistically significant differences.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have modified our results discussion section to add significant differences in the paper and describe our results discussion in terms of significant differences.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
General comments:
Nice work and lovely idea, I hope the suggestions below make it an even better paper.
Please change all "post-harvest" to "postharvest" - the section title of the journal is "Postharvest Biology, Quality, Safety, and Technology" the spelling in the text should match that.
Captions for figures and tables must contain all necessary information, such as data presented as averages, eans etc., and the statistical usage to create the errors or the letters; all axis need to be labelled appropriately and units displayed. A figure + its caption is a self-explanatory unit. (examples provided in the pdf)
Specifics:
Abstract - the treatments are not mentioned; did you only have ±LED light?
M&M - lines 99 to 119: the "self-developed LED banana preservation box" needs to be described in detail; the DOI for the paper it has been taken from does not work, and the paper is published in Chinese; therefore, you need to provide a schematic and a description of the box(s) --> presumably you have at least one box per treatment? Ideally, there has to be a replicated box for each treatment. Please explain how that was done.
Fruit sampling needs more detail to be replicable (lines 117-119)
2.2.2 Ethylene measurements need a more detailed description - the paper [14] does not provide sufficient information. Colour measurements need to be explained and what the delta is and how it is calculated. This is important for the result section and not clear in the "Effects of Reactive Oxygen Levels on Chilling Injury and Storability in 21 Apricot Varieties from Different Production Areas in China" paper.
2.2.3 - how much tissue? How many samples?
All methods should follow the 2.2.4, 2.2.5 and 2.2.6 system - you explain exactly what you do. Add the information on how many samples on each day are taken from which treatment, and all the needed information is there. Do that for all of the methods, and you are good to go.
Results
line 239 - is this an actual observation or a feeling? If it only "seems as if", it is best to remove the statement. (see comment in PDF)
lines 240-245 - mixing of firmness and SSC; best separate the two and have separate sentences for each
Statistical results for all measurements (treatment (group), time point, interactions etc) should be shown for each factor (firmness, ethylene, etc) and relationships (linear...) can be added as well. This would make section lines 264 to 275 a lot easier to read and could easily support statements in all result sections.
Figures 3 and 4 both have a change from Ethephon to Ethylene - check that the figures are labelled correctly; if the y-axis does not start at 0, this should be indicated with the appropriate double slash. 
Discussion
The text in the discussion section should relate back to the results to make it easier for the reader to refer back to the figures/tables etc., which show the results you relate to. That way, the reader does not have to search for which figure supports the statement.
lines 376 to 382 needs references and linking back to the results at hand
The discussion overall states facts from the literature about physiological processes but not how other studies have found similar or contradicting results. The discussion section needs work.
references
check all citations are correct and the DOI working
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
English needs some work to make sure the sentences are clear and grammatically correct.
Author Response
Response Letter
Dear editor:
Thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise our manuscript entitled “Effect of red visible lighting on postharvest ripening of bananas via the regulation of energy metabolism” (ID: horticulturae-2502316).
We have revised our manuscript carefully according to the comments, and would like to re-submit it for your consideration. The amendments are highlighted in red font in the revised manuscript. Our responses to the referees are listed by point to point in the following sections. If there are any deficiencies in this manuscript modification, we will fully cooperate to editor and revise it again in the next time.
We would like to express our great appreciation to you and reviewers for the comments and hope that revised manuscript is acceptable.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Bangdi Liu
Academy of Agricultural Planning and Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China
PO Box 111, No. 41 Maizidian Road, Beijing, 100083, China
E-mail: [email protected]
Reply to Referees
to Referees 3
Question1: Please change all "post-harvest" to "postharvest" - the section title of the journal is "Postharvest Biology, Quality, Safety, and Technology" the spelling in the text should match that.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have checked the full text and modified "post-harvest" to "postharvest".
Question2: Captions for figures and tables must contain all necessary information, such as data presented as averages, eans etc., and the statistical usage to create the errors or the letters; all axis need to be labelled appropriately and units displayed. A figure + its caption is a self-explanatory unit. (examples provided in the pdf)
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have checked the headings of all the charts and tables and modified.
Question3: the treatments are not mentioned; did you only have ±LED light?
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have added additional processing methods to Abstract.
Question4: lines 99 to 119: the "self-developed LED banana preservation box" needs to be described in detail; the DOI for the paper it has been taken from does not work, and the paper is published in Chinese; therefore, you need to provide a schematic and a description of the box(s) --> presumably you have at least one box per treatment? Ideally, there has to be a replicated box for each treatment. Please explain how that was done.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have attached the schematic diagram and detailed description of the box.
Question5: Fruit sampling needs more detail to be replicable (lines 117-119)
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have described the method, adding the sample size and sampling method to avoid the same confusion for the reader.
Question6: 2.2.2 Ethylene measurements need a more detailed description - the paper [14] does not provide sufficient information. Colour measurements need to be explained and what the delta is and how it is calculated. This is important for the result section and not clear in the "Effects of Reactive Oxygen Levels on Chilling Injury and Storability in 21 Apricot Varieties from Different Production Areas in China" paper.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have modified the determination of ethylene and color and added more detailed descriptions.
Question7: 2.2.3 - how much tissue? How many samples?
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have added a description to this section.
Question8: All methods should follow the 2.2.4, 2.2.5 and 2.2.6 system - you explain exactly what you do. Add the information on how many samples on each day are taken from which treatment, and all the needed information is there. Do that for all of the methods, and you are good to go.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have reviewed all the method sections and supplemented them by adding detailed descriptions of the total color difference ΔE, ethylene release, respiratory intensity measurement methods, and calculation formulas, respectively.
Question9: line 239 - is this an actual observation or a feeling? If it only "seems as if", it is best to remove the statement. (see comment in PDF)
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, A true observation, we have enlarged Figure 1A, can be clearly observed.
Question10: lines 240-245 - mixing of firmness and SSC; best separate the two and have separate sentences for each
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have separated the hardness from the description of SSC and rearranged it.
Question11: Statistical results for all measurements (treatment (group), time point, interactions etc) should be shown for each factor (firmness, ethylene, etc) and relationships (linear...) can be added as well. This would make section lines 264 to 275 a lot easier to read and could easily support statements in all result sections.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, The results in part 3.1 only compare and describe the changes of banana ripening under different treatments, not the key factors affecting ripening. We have added descriptions of significant differences in the results involving numerical values in part 3.1 of the results to facilitate readers to read and understand the relevant data.
Question12: Figures 3 and 4 both have a change from Ethephon to Ethylene - check that the figures are labelled correctly; if the y-axis does not start at 0, this should be indicated with the appropriate double slash.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have modified Figures 3 and 4 to start the Y-axis of all figures at 0.
Question13: The text in the discussion section should relate back to the results to make it easier for the reader to refer back to the figures/tables etc., which show the results you relate to. That way, the reader does not have to search for which figure supports the statement.
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, While discussing the data, we have added positions in specific charts to make it easier for readers to find the data in the charts.
Question14: lines 376 to 382 needs references and linking back to the results at hand
Response: Thanks to the reviewer's suggestions, We have referenced the link here to get the argument that supports this description.
问题15：讨论总体上陈述了文献中关于生理过程的事实，但没有说明其他研究如何发现类似或矛盾的结果。讨论部分需要工作。
回应：感谢审稿人的建议，我们在讨论部分添加了参考文献，以便读者更容易理解其他一些相关研究内容的结果。
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
