Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the COL Gene Family in Hemerocallis citrina Baroni

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Review of the Genome‑wide identification and expression analysis of the COL gene family in Hemerocallis citrina Baroni

The manuscript addresses an important issue: investigating the COL gene family, including many key genes in the process of plant flowering. The manuscript contains some valuable information, but only one cultivar has been tested for transcriptional analysis of COL by qRT-PCR. The samples of Hemerocallis citrina were collected from field at four developmental stages. Secondary environmental factors (e.g. ambient temperature, light intensity) also have a strong influence to flowering process in field conditions. Therefore, it is not possible to determine appropriate conclusions from the measured gene expression values. In my opinion, it would be better to investigate the expression of COL genes by including more cultivars or this section of the manuscript could be omitted.

My personal opinion is that this manuscript can be accepted for publication after major revisions.

Other comments:

·         The description of RNA extraction could be more detailed or include a reference.

·         Has the RNA quality (RIN value) been tested? RNA quality parameters can provide important feedback on qRT-PCR data.

·         A more detailed description of qRT-PCR reaction (e.g. volume and concentration of the PCR components, PCR profile). In my opinion, the additions I have requested may also facilitate better reproducibility of the experimental setups were used.

·         ‘Arabidopsis’ is usually written in italics and so are the names of genes. In several places in the manuscript this should be replaced.

·         Instead of qPCR it would be better to use the term qRT-PCR

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of COL genes in H. citrina ‘Mengzihua,’ examining their chromosomal distribution, phylogenetic relationships, gene and protein structures, collinearity, and expression levels in the floral organs across four developmental stages.

I have some remarks:

The iThenticate report has identified similarities between your paper and the following article: Chen, Y., Zhou, R., Hu, Q., Wei, W., & Liu, J. (2021). Conservation and divergence of the CONSTANS-Like (COL) genes related to flowering and circadian rhythm in Brassica napus. Frontiers in Plant Science, 12, 760379. Please review this and address any potential issues.

Abstract. Change "Mengzihua" H. citrina  to H. citrina cultivar 'Mengzihua'. The name of the cultivar must be indicated at the beginning of the abstract.

Line 41. The idea: "CO is a transcription factor that can directly bind to DNA to activate the transcription of its target gene" must be placed above before taking the phenotype mutant:

Line 71 and 77. Indicate the meaning of COP1 and Hd1 and their function in flowering

Line 81, 86 Several gene abbreviations are not specified throughout the text,

Line 92. Change “may” to “others.”

Line 101-114. The description of H. citrina as a study system should be placed at the beginning of the introduction.

Line 148-150. Was the HMM analysis performed at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/. ? Please indicate the software used.

Line 187-192. Indicated the plant tissue and housekeeping gene used for the 2-△△CT method

Line 215, CCT. Mention briefly the function of B-box and CCT domains

Figure 2, 3, 8. Please indicate the program in which the figures were created.

Figure 7. Indicate the support branched value in the Phylogenetic tree

Line 272. Explain why the duplication events are considered segmental duplications.

Line 311. What is the scientific name of DatongHuanghua?

Figure 9: Please explain this figure. Does it function as a heat map, indicating the number of cis-elements in the promoter region?

Line 337. Uniform the name of the species: at the beginning of the manuscript, write "Arabidopsis" without italics, and later use "A. thaliana."

Line 349. What about the CCT domain? Any idea of its function?

 

 

 

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language is required

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The requested changes have been made by the authors. Therefore, I recommend the manuscript for acceptance.