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Peer-Review Record

Evaluation of Papaya Plants Tolerant to PRSV Obtained Through Conventional Genetic Improvement

by Luz María Sánchez-Noriega 1, Manuel R. Kirchmayr 1, Benjamín Rodríguez-Garay 1, Diego E. Navarro-López 2 and Antonia Gutiérrez-Mora 1,*
Reviewer 1: Anonymous
Reviewer 2:
Submission received: 5 April 2025 / Revised: 1 August 2025 / Accepted: 4 August 2025 / Published: 15 August 2025
(This article belongs to the Collection Feature Papers in Plant and Photoautotrophic Stresses)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The present research entitled "Evaluation of papaya plants tolerant to PRSV obtained through conventional genetic improvement" has very interesting findings, is scientifically sound, and addresses a hot topic. The authors discovered that line 89 was highly tolerant to PRSV. I have the following major comments that the authors need to address.

Major

-The Introduction section is too brief, and more up-to-date information about the economic damage the PRSV disease is causing nationally and internationally is required. Details of the management options and their pros and cons should be mentioned in the Introduction.

-The most difficult part in accepting this study is the lack of statistical support. For instance, in lines 183 and 237, there was no statistical analysis proving a statistically significant difference among the plant lines.

-The discussion in its present form is not satisfactory, and I recommend that the authors include a separate section and discuss the findings in detail.

Minor

-Line 110–111: Please correct the formula "IE" to "DI".

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.

Reviewer 1

Firstly, the Introduction should be expanded and, most importantly, should conclude with a clearly defined mechanistic hypothesis.  

The introduction has been modified and concludes with the hypothesis of the research. Lines 77-80

Regarding the suggestion to include crop loss statistics, a note was included where it is mentioned that there are no worldwide statistics since each producing country has its own record. Lines 48-53 and Lines 177-189

Some strategies to try to eliminate and/or coexist with the virus were also mentioned.

Lines 50-53

The Materials and Methods section also requires clearer structure and greater detail, particularly regarding the origin and development of the different plant lines used in the study.

The methodology was modified by explaining the origin of the material evaluated.

Lines 84-93

The Discussion section should also be expanded to provide a more in-depth analysis and interpretation of the results.

Results and discussion are included separately.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript “Evaluation of papaya plants tolerant to PRSV obtained through conventional genetic improvement” addresses a highly relevant topic and provides valuable insights and technologies for the management of papaya ringspot virus (PRSV), a widely distributed virus and one of the most significant phytosanitary issues affecting papaya cultivation worldwide. The findings presented could be useful for the genetic improvement of this important crop. However, the authors are encouraged to revise the manuscript and provide a more detailed description of the methodology employed. This would allow for a better understanding of how the results were obtained and would significantly enhance the scientific robustness of the study.  The observations made are included in the PDF of the manuscript.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

TheThe manuscript “Evaluation of papaya plants tolerant to PRSV obtained through conventional genetic improvement” addresses a highly relevant topic and provides valuable insights and technologies for the management of papaya ringspot virus (PRSV), a widely distributed virus and one of the most significant phytosanitary issues affecting papaya cultivation worldwide. The findings presented could be useful for the genetic improvement of this important crop. However, the authors are encouraged to revise the manuscript and provide a more detailed description of the methodology employed. This would allow for a better understanding of how the results were obtained and would significantly enhance the scientific robustness of the study.  The observations made are included in the PDF of the manuscript

The methodology has been modified

All suggestions in the pdf file were made.

 

References were changed to numbers throughout the text.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors revised per my recommendation

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript “Evaluation of papaya plants tolerant to PRSV obtained through conventional genetic improvement" has been substantially improved. However, the authors should consider some observations that were included in the PDF of the paper.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

  1. Summary

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find details responses below and the corresponding revisions in track changes in hte re-submited files.

 

In agreement with leaving only Tecnologico de Monterrey, please remove the accent on the word Tecnologico.

The comment in line 16 has been modified.

 

The text in lines 97-99 “The main symptoms of PRSV are severe mosaic and leaf deformation, concentric rings on the fruit, oily spots on the upper part of the stems and petioles; it prevents plant growth and drastically reduces the size and quality of the fruit” has been deleted.

 

The number of plants requested in line 142 was added

 

The text in lines 215-2019 “The evaluation was performed by measuring the severity of virus symptoms in pa-paya plants, calculating the disease index to determine the plant's tolerance or resistance, and relating the viral load of each line in two different samplings at 97 and 532 DAP. All plant lines appear in the analyses, except lines 54 and 90, of which there was only one plant; however, their behavior is mentioned below in some sections” has been replaced by “The evaluation was performed by measuring the incidence and severity of the virus symptoms in papaya plants; with the severity value, the disease index (DI) was calculated to determine the tolerance or resistance of the plants; subsequently, the DI was related to the viral load of each line in two different samplings at 97 and 532 DAP. All plant lines appeared in the analyses, except for lines 54 and 90, of which there was only one plant; however, their behavior is mentioned later in some sections”.

 

The capital letter in line 230 has been changed.

 

The methodology for calculating incidence was added just before Table 2.

 

The word “variety” has been replaced by “species”, line 593

 

The italics in the word exhibit have been removed, line 595

 

To avoid confusion, the following text is deleted “This definition has been expanded to emphasize that tolerance implies the host's ability to permit viral replication and dissemination without significantly impacting its growth or yield [20].” Lines 601-603

 

The text in lines 621-623 was modified. “At the same time, tolerance implies a reduction in symptoms and viral load is unreduced or only slightly reduced, allowing growth comparable to that of healthy plants.

 

In addition, Figures 1 and 2 were changed, modifying the font and sharpness.

 

Also, some words in the references were corrected.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

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