Evaluation of Fourteen Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Genotypes by Observing Gas Exchange Parameters, Relative Water and Chlorophyll Content, and Yield Attributes under Drought Stress
, Sobia Manzoor 1, Tauqeer Ahmad Yasir 1, Naeem Sarwar 2, Khuram Mubeen 3, Ismail A. Ismail 4, Ali Raza 5, Abdul Rehman 6, Akbar Hossain 7 and Ayman EL Sabagh 8,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In my opinion the article is interesting. Moreover might be of technical and practical interest to many readers of this journal. For these reasons, I believe that this paper could be accepted for publication, but only after Minor Revisions.
Here following the corrections that need to be made:
Title:
Ok
Abstract:
Line 26: remove worldwide
Line 27: the aim of the current study is to evaluate the effect…
Line 29: genotypes cultivated in Pakistan. (P.S. if you prefer indicate here the specific region)
Line 41: suggested that Galaxy-2013 could be cultivated extensively…
Introduction:
Line 53: ….depends on cereals. Their …..
Line 55 – 57: I agree with it, but you need to cite a couple of papers to support your statement. I strongly suggest you to add these papers at the end of the sentence.
…. and grain-filling phases [6, 7]
Please add these papers to the references list and scale up of two positions the old references:
[6] Guerrini, L., Napoli, M., Mancini, M., Masella, P., Cappelli, A., Parenti, A., & Orlandini, S. Wheat grain composition, dough rheology and bread quality as affected by nitrogen and sulfur fertilization and seeding density. Agronomy, 2020, 10(2), 233.
[7] Cappelli, A., & Cini, E. Challenges and Opportunities in Wheat Flour, Pasta, Bread, and Bakery Product Production Chains: A Systematic Review of Innovations and Improvement Strategies to Increase Sustainability, Productivity, and Product Quality. Sustainability, 2021, 13(5), 2608.
Lines 59 – 72 : you made really a good job here but what about the effect of drought stress and relative low water content in wheat kernels? You did not mentioned at all these effects on wheat milling, dough kneading, and bread baking. So I strongly suggest you to add this sentence after line 72 and to add also the relative suggested papers.
…susceptible wheat genotypes [18]. “Last but not least, drought stress could significantly affect wheat kernels milling [19], flour quality [20], dough kneading [21, 22], and the entire breadmaking process [7]”.
Please add these papers in the references list and scale up of four positions the old references.
[19] Cappelli, A., Guerrini, L., Parenti, A., Palladino, G., & Cini, E. Effects of wheat tempering and stone rotational speed on particle size, dough rheology and bread characteristics for a stone-milled weak flour. Journal of Cereal Science, 2020, 91, 102879.
[20] Cappelli, A., Mugnaini, M., Cini, E. Improving roller milling technology using the break, sizing, and reduction systems for flour differentiation. LWT–Food Science and Technology, 2020, 133, 110067.
[21] Cappelli, A., Bettaccini, L., & Cini, E. The kneading process: A systematic review of the effects on dough rheology and resulting bread characteristics, including improvement strategies. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2020, 104, 91–101.
[22] Cappelli, A., Canessa, J., & Cini, E. Effects of CO2 snow addition during kneading on thermoregulation, dough rheological properties, and bread characteristics: a focus on ancient and modern wheat cultivars. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2020, 117, 52–60.
Line 74-75: the ability…very important, please rephrase like this:
For this reason, the selection and use of drought-stress resistant cultivars able to guarantee suitable yields and flour quality, is essential.
Line 84-86 : please specify only to Punjab zone
Line 87: on the tested wheat genotypes to find high-….
Materials and methods:
Line 98: replace details with design
Line 100: were not was !
Line 101: The tested wheat genotypes were: Ujala-2016, …..
Line 104: …2006; Moreover, three drought treatments, i.e. i) ……, were tested.
Line 111: at ratio 3:1
Line 116: from the jointing
Line 173: YOU MEAN TUKEY HSD TEST !?!? CORRECT!
Results:
Line 185: least? You mean lower? Please correct
Line 203-205: Decreases of 30 and 70% for Pn, of 45 and 81% for gs, and of 45 and 80% for E were observed under mild drought and severe drought conditions, respectively (Fig. 1-3)
Line 205: Highest Pn, …… (remove all the text before it)
Line 218-219: significantly reduced or not? Please specify!
Line 254: the maximum
Line 275-276: were found
Line 278: and E were significantly correlated each other….
Discussion:
Line 295 – 303: please explain (clearly) why Galaxy and AAS have higher RWC. You did not explained clearly which is the reason (genetically different I imagine).
Line 337-339 : In addition to chlorophyll, other contributing factors for reduced Pn are limited CO2 diffusion due to early stomatal closure under drought stress
You are indicating only one other factor, i.e. co2 diffusion, so please correct :
Factor (singular) and replace are with is.
Line 361: replace the “first” severe with significant.
Line 371: on the contrary,
Author Response
Dear Reviewer
Thank you for your valuable suggestion and comments for the improvement of current manuscript. We have improved the manuscript based your comments. All the mentioned changes have been incorporated in the manuscript. We appreciate for your warm work earnestly and hope that the correction will meet with approval.
On behalf of all co-authors, once again thank you for your valuable efforts.
Best regards,
Ayman El Sabagh
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
In my opinion, the article is interesting. Moreover might be of technical and practical interest to many readers of this journal. For these reasons, I believe that this paper could be accepted for publication, but only after Minor Revisions.
Here following the corrections that need to be made:
Title:
Ok
Abstract:
Line 26: remove worldwide
Response: “worldwide” removed from the text.
Line 27: the aim of the current study is to evaluate the effect…
Response: Corrected as suggested by replacing “the current study focused on investigating” with the suggested text.
Line 29: genotypes cultivated in Pakistan. (P.S. if you prefer indicate here the specific region)
Response: These genotypes are being cultivated in the country from arid to semi-arid areas under irrigated as well as rainfed conditions. We made correction by mentioning that “these genotypes are being cultivated in arid to semi-arid areas on large scale.
Line 41: suggested that Galaxy-2013 could be cultivated extensively…
Response: Corrected as suggested
Introduction:
Line 53: ….depends on cereals. Their …..
Response: The sentence is corrected by splitting in to two, as suggested.
Line 55 – 57: I agree with it, but you need to cite a couple of papers to support your statement. I strongly suggest you to add these papers at the end of the sentence.
…. and grain-filling phases [6, 7].
Please add these papers to the references list and scale up of two positions the old references:
[6] Guerrini, L., Napoli, M., Mancini, M., Masella, P., Cappelli, A., Parenti, A., & Orlandini, S. Wheat grain composition, dough rheology and bread quality as affected by nitrogen and sulfur fertilization and seeding density. Agronomy, 2020, 10(2), 233.
[7] Cappelli, A., & Cini, E. Challenges and Opportunities in Wheat Flour, Pasta, Bread, and Bakery Product Production Chains: A Systematic Review of Innovations and Improvement Strategies to Increase Sustainability, Productivity, and Product Quality. Sustainability, 2021, 13(5), 2608.
Response: Thank you for this nice suggestion for authenticating drought effects at terminal growth stages.
We have added above mentioned two references to support this statement.
Lines 59 – 72 : you made really a good job here but what about the effect of drought stress and relative low water content in wheat kernels? You did not mentioned at all these effects on wheat milling, dough kneading, and bread baking. So I strongly suggest you to add this sentence after line 72 and to add also the relative suggested papers.
…susceptible wheat genotypes [18]. “Last but not least, drought stress could significantly affect wheat kernels milling [19], flour quality [20], dough kneading [21, 22], and the entire breadmaking process [7]”.
Please add these papers in the references list and scale up of four positions the old references.
[19] Cappelli, A., Guerrini, L., Parenti, A., Palladino, G., & Cini, E. Effects of wheat tempering and stone rotational speed on particle size, dough rheology and bread characteristics for a stone-milled weak flour. Journal of Cereal Science, 2020, 91, 102879.
[20] Cappelli, A., Mugnaini, M., Cini, E. Improving roller milling technology using the break, sizing, and reduction systems for flour differentiation. LWT–Food Science and Technology, 2020, 133, 110067.
[21] Cappelli, A., Bettaccini, L., & Cini, E. The kneading process: A systematic review of the effects on dough rheology and resulting bread characteristics, including improvement strategies. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2020, 104, 91–101.
[22] Cappelli, A., Canessa, J., & Cini, E. Effects of CO2 snow addition during kneading on thermoregulation, dough rheological properties, and bread characteristics: a focus on ancient and modern wheat cultivars. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2020, 117, 52–60.
Response: Thank you for valuable improvement in the manuscript. We have added this text relating drought effect on quality traits and also added full references.
Line 74-75: the ability…very important, please rephrase like this:
For this reason, the selection and use of drought-stress resistant cultivars able to guarantee suitable yields and flour quality, is essential.
Response: We have corrected the phrase as suggested.
Line 84-86 : please specify only to Punjab zone
Response: Corrected as “suitable varieties grown in drought-prone arid areas of Punjab province to obtain better genetic potential”.
Line 87: on the tested wheat genotypes to find high-….
Response: Corrected as suggested
Materials and methods:
Line 98: replace details with design
Response: Correction is made in the heading as “ Experimental design and treatments”.
Line 100: were not was !
Response: Sure, corrected with “were”.
Line 101: The tested wheat genotypes were: Ujala-2016, …..
Response: We have changed the phrase with the suggested one.
Line 104: …2006; Moreover, three drought treatments, i.e. i) ……, were tested.
Response: Corrected as suggested
Line 111: at ratio 3:1
Response: Corrected by adding ratio before 3:1
Line 116: from the jointing
Response: Corrected
Line 173: YOU MEAN TUKEY HSD TEST !?!? CORRECT!
Response: Yes, we use Tukey’s HSD (honestly significant difference) test.
It was typed wrongly. Now it is corrected.
Results:
Line 185: least? You mean lower? Please correct
Response: Yes, it is corrected.
Line 203-205: Decreases of 30 and 70% for Pn, of 45 and 81% for gs, and of 45 and 80% for E were observed under mild drought and severe drought conditions, respectively (Fig. 1-3)
Response: We have updated the phrase by replacing it with the suggested phrase by you.
Line 205: Highest Pn, …… (remove all the text before it)
Response: Corrected.
Line 218-219: significantly reduced or not? Please specify!
Response: These parameters were significantly reduced under mild and severe drought conditions.
We have also added in the text “significantly reduced”.
Line 254: the maximum
Response: a maximum is replaced with “the maximum”
Line 275-276: were found
Response: were observed is replaced with “were found”
Line 278: and E were significantly correlated each other….
Response: It is corrected as suggested.
Discussion:
Line 295 – 303: please explain (clearly) why Galaxy and AAS have higher RWC. You did not explained clearly which is the reason (genetically different I imagine).
Response: Wheat genotypes Galaxy-2013 and AAS-2011 maintained more relative water content than rest of the genotypes. It might be due to their genetic makeup by involvement of genes which make them superior to maintain more relative water content under drought conditions. This character is also supported by other physiological and growth parameters.
We have added a sentence in the text that to maintain more relative water content is might be due to the genetic makeup of Galaxy-2013 and AAS-2011.
Line 337-339: In addition to chlorophyll, other contributing factors for reduced Pn are limited CO2 diffusion due to early stomatal closure under drought stress
You are indicating only one other factor, i.e. co2 diffusion, so please correct:
Factor (singular) and replace are with is.
Response: You are right. We have made the correction.
Line 361: replace the “first” severe with significant.
Response: Corrected as suggested.
Line 371: on the contrary,
Response: Corrected.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript Evaluation of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes by observing gas exchange parameters, relative water content, chlorophyll content and yield-related traits under drought stress is dedicated to an important task, an estimation of wheat cultivars to drought conditions. The manuscript describes a well-established experiment which results might be helpful for farmers. However, there are some issues that should be addressed and improved.
Overall comments.
The title is too expanded. You should shorten it. You may comporess the listed parameters "gas exchange parameters, relative water content, chlorophyll content and yield-related traits" to "physiological and yield-related traits". And add that this is a greenhouse experiment.
In lines 84-85 you wrote
"However, no information is available regarding suitable varieties grown in drought-prone arid areas to obtain better genetic potential"
Using Scholar Google I found the following papers
Bijanzadeh et al. Effect of Defoliation and Drought Stress on Yield Components and Chlorophyll Content of Wheat // Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 13 (14): 699-705, 2010
ALI JATOI et al. EFFECT OF WATER STRESS ON PHYSIOLOGICAL AND YIELD PARAMETERS AT ANTHESIS STAGE IN ELITE SPRING WHEAT CULTIVAR // Sarhad J. Agric. Vol.27, No.1, 2011
Khakwani et al. Drought tolerance screening of wheat varieties by inducing water stress conditions // Songklanakarin J. Sci. Technol. 33 (2), 135-142, Mar. - Apr. 2011
Din et al., Drought Tolerance Screening in Thirty Common Wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) Genotypes // .Sarhad Journal of Agriculture, 36(1): 168-177.
These researches were not cited in your manuscript. And they demonstrates that there is information on genotypes adapted to drought conditions.
Therefore, the main question is on the novelty of the whole work. The real new thing is the genotypes, the set of cultivars that you used in your research. Therefore, there is a list of notes that should be addressed
- In introduction more information should be provided about the present-day status of wheat cultivation in Thal region of Punjab, Pakistan. What conditions do you have there? What cultivars are grown and what is the average yield? What are the yield losses due to drought? What is the extent of drought severity? How do you handle the problem of drought? Do you use irrigation? Do you have breeding stations here?
- Cite the previous works on wheat cultivars/genotypes estimation on drought. What is the principle novelty of your research?
- In Materials and methods there should be the special abstract Plant Material. You wrote in line 99 "Seeds of 14 wheat genotypes, consisted of new and old locally cultivated varieties". Describe, what of them are old, what new. Are they related or distant to each other according to thier pedigree? Do they have common relatives? Were they developed in the same breeding centure or different? How old are "old locally cultivated varieties"? In abstract in line 29 you wrote "14 wheat genotypes being cultivated in the region large scale" - are there any data on thier average yield?
- In Discussion there should be speculation on the breeding for this or that physiological trait - what is more perspective? And again, you should show, what cultivars are more resistant - new or old? What is the achievment of breeding here?
Detailed comments and notes
line 106 CRD factorial design
"CRD" design should be deciphered
line 109 Crop husbandry
It should be replaces by "Plants growing"
line 137 70oC
"o" symbol should be in the uppercase
line 154 400-μmol mol-1
"-1" should be in the uppercase
line 171 2.8. Statistical analysis:
Did you use 2-way ANOVA, drought and genotype? If yes, descibe it here.
line 194 Table 1
You show in "Relative water contents (%)" the significance using letters. You should comment on this in the footprint of the table. Then, why do not you use the letters for the comparison of SPAD-Chlorophyll value? Explain or demonstrate the results of statictic analysis.
Figures 1-3. Here, you designate varieties as V1-V14. For the readers' convenience, decipher this code. Dor example, you may add a left column in Table 1 where you can numerate the cultivars as V1, V2, ..., V14.
line 206 galaxy-2013
The name of cultivar, should go from capital letter.
lines 205-208 It was observed that the highest Pn, gs, and E were observed in the genotype galaxy-2013 followed by Johar-2016 under severe drought conditions (Fig. 1-3), while these parameters were reduced in other genotypes under mild and severe drought conditions.
The parameters decreased in all cultivars, but in drought-resistant they decreased to lesser extent. You should re-formulate the sentence.
line 264 Table-5
"-" should be replaced by space
You should leave 1-2 tables, while others should be included into Supplementary materials.
line 304 In contrast, the values were reduced
"In contrast" does not have much sense here.
line 338, 434 CO2
"2" should be in the lowercase
line 347 were also reported by [26].
you should rephrase it as "were also reported in [26]."
line 324 Table 8
Why are "0.529" underlined?
line 401 with the findings of [45] in wheat, [46] in rice, and [47] in pean
you should change the word order as "with the findings in wheat [45], in rice [46], and in peanut [47]"
line 408-409 "Therefore, under arid to semi-arid conditions, the farmers can grow wheat variety Galaxy-2013 to receive better economic yield."
This is rather contraversial statement. Have any field experiments been performed? For direct recommendations you should estimate you cultivar for several years under filed conditions of a given region.
lines 454, 458, 466, 478, 485, 495, 498
latine should be in italics
You use Fig.1, Fig.2, etc. Is this according to the journal's requirements?
In total, all the text and references should be checked for the journal's requirements.
Kind regards,
Reviewer.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer
Thank you for your valuable suggestion and comments for the improvement of current manuscript. We have improved the manuscript based your comments. All the mentioned changes have been incorporated in the manuscript. We appreciate for your warm work earnestly and hope that the correction will meet with approval.
On behalf of all co-authors, once again thank you for your valuable efforts.
Best regards,
Ayman El Sabagh
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The manuscript Evaluation of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes by observing gas exchange parameters, relative water content, chlorophyll content and yield-related traits under drought stress is dedicated to an important task, an estimation of wheat cultivars to drought conditions. The manuscript describes a well-established experiment which results might be helpful for farmers. However, there are some issues that should be addressed and improved.
Overall comments.
The title is too expanded. You should shorten it. You may comporess the listed parameters "gas exchange parameters, relative water content, chlorophyll content and yield-related traits" to "physiological and yield-related traits". And add that this is a greenhouse experiment.
Response: It is a nice suggestion. But it is observed from the previous literature that many research articles have similar title as “Physiological and Yield-related traits”. Therefore we selected the current title to avoid the similarity and to have clear idea about the study.
If you still suggest “physiological and yield-related traits", we will change the title.
In lines 84-85 you wrote
"However, no information is available regarding suitable varieties grown in drought-prone arid areas to obtain better genetic potential"
Using Scholar Google I found the following papers
Bijanzadeh et al. Effect of Defoliation and Drought Stress on Yield Components and Chlorophyll Content of Wheat // Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 13 (14): 699-705, 2010
ALI JATOI et al. EFFECT OF WATER STRESS ON PHYSIOLOGICAL AND YIELD PARAMETERS AT ANTHESIS STAGE IN ELITE SPRING WHEAT CULTIVAR // Sarhad J. Agric. Vol.27, No.1, 2011
Khakwani et al. Drought tolerance screening of wheat varieties by inducing water stress conditions // Songklanakarin J. Sci. Technol. 33 (2), 135-142, Mar. - Apr. 2011
Din et al., Drought Tolerance Screening in Thirty Common Wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) Genotypes // .Sarhad Journal of Agriculture, 36(1): 168-177.
These researches were not cited in your manuscript. And they demonstrates that there is information on genotypes adapted to drought conditions.
Therefore, the main question is on the novelty of the whole work. The real new thing is the genotypes, the set of cultivars that you used in your research. Therefore, there is a list of notes that should be addressed
Response: these researchers worked on wheat varieties in different regions. In thal regions many researchers worked on mitigation strategies but didn’t worked on varietal comparison and their response against drought.
- In introduction more information should be provided about the present-day status of wheat cultivation in Thal region of Punjab, Pakistan. What conditions do you have there? What cultivars are grown and what is the average yield? What are the yield losses due to drought? What is the extent of drought severity? How do you handle the problem of drought? Do you use irrigation? Do you have breeding stations here?
Response: Information regarding thal region has been added in the last paragraph of introduction section.
- Cite the previous works on wheat cultivars/genotypes estimation on drought. What is the principle novelty of your research?
Response: cited in the introduction
- In Materials and methods there should be the special abstract Plant Material. You wrote in line 99 "Seeds of 14 wheat genotypes, consisted of new and old locally cultivated varieties". Describe, what of them are old, what new. Are they related or distant to each other according to thier pedigree? Do they have common relatives? Were they developed in the same breeding centure or different? How old are "old locally cultivated varieties"? In abstract in line 29 you wrote "14 wheat genotypes being cultivated in the region large scale" - are there any data on thier average yield?
Response: One table about variety information has been incorporated in Materials and methods section
- In Discussion there should be speculation on the breeding for this or that physiological trait - what is more perspective? And again, you should show, what cultivars are more resistant - new or old? What is the achievment of breeding here?
Response: Already response of varieties to drought has been described. However we found new cultivars more tolerant than old ones.
Detailed comments and notes
Comment: line 106: CRD factorial design"CRD" design should be deciphered
Response: Made changes accordingly, CRD is deciphered as “Completely Randomized Design”
Comment: line 109 Crop husbandry
It should be replaces by "Plants growing"
Response: It is corrected as suggested
Comment: line 137 70oC
"o" symbol should be in the uppercase
Response: It is corrected and replaced with the symbol.
line 154 400-μmol mol-1
"-1" should be in the uppercase
Response: It is corrected by using uppercase style.
line 171 2.8. Statistical analysis:
Did you use 2-way ANOVA, drought and genotype? If yes, descibe it here.
Response: information about 2-way ANOVA has been added in the text
line 194 Table 1
You show in "Relative water contents (%)" the significance using letters. You should comment on this in the footprint of the table. Then, why do not you use the letters for the comparison of SPAD-Chlorophyll value? Explain or demonstrate the results of statictic analysis.
Response: the interaction effect for relative water contents was significant and for SPAD-Chlorophyll the interaction effect was found non-significant. That’s why we didn’t use letters for comparison of interaction values for SPAD-Chlorophyll, however for its main effect the letters are presented in table.
Comment: Figures 1-3. Here, you designate varieties as V1-V14. For the readers' convenience, decipher this code. Dor example, you may add a left column in Table 1 where you can numerate the cultivars as V1, V2, ..., V14.
Response: It is a nice suggestion. We made changes by deciphered names of genotypes in the footnote of all figures.
Comment: line 206 galaxy-2013
The name of cultivar, should go from capital letter.
Response: Corrected as suggested.
lines 205-208 It was observed that the highest Pn, gs, and E were observed in the genotype galaxy-2013 followed by Johar-2016 under severe drought conditions (Fig. 1-3), while these parameters were reduced in other genotypes under mild and severe drought conditions.
The parameters decreased in all cultivars, but in drought-resistant they decreased to lesser extent. You should re-formulate the sentence.
Response: Corrected as suggested.
line 264 Table-5
"-" should be replaced by space
Response: Corrected as suggested.
Comment: You should leave 1-2 tables, while others should be included into Supplementary materials.
Response: We believe that all the Tables 1-5 represent very important data regarding genotypes variation in the studied parameters under drought. For reader’s understanding it should be included in the main text.
Comment: line 304 In contrast, the values were reduced
"In contrast" does not have much sense here.
Response: Changes are made by replacing “in contrast” with “whereas”
Comment: line 338, 434 CO2
"2" should be in the lowercase
Response: Corrected
Comment: line 347 were also reported by [26].
you should rephrase it as "were also reported in [26]."
Response: Corrected as suggested
Comment: line 324 Table 8
Why are "0.529" underlined?
Response: It was mistakenly done during formatting table. It has been corrected now.
Comment: line 401 with the findings of [45] in wheat, [46] in rice, and [47] in pean
you should change the word order as "with the findings in wheat [45], in rice [46], and in peanut [47]"
Response: Corrected as suggested
Comment: line 408-409 "Therefore, under arid to semi-arid conditions, the farmers can grow wheat variety Galaxy-2013 to receive better economic yield."
This is rather contraversial statement. Have any field experiments been performed? For direct recommendations you should estimate you cultivar for several years under filed conditions of a given region.
Response: We reformulated the phrase as “Therefore, under arid to semi-arid conditions, the farmers may grow wheat variety Galaxy-2013 to receive better economic yield”
Comment: lines 454, 458, 466, 478, 485, 495, 498
latine should be in italics
Response: Corrected as suggested
Comment: You use Fig.1, Fig.2, etc. Is this according to the journal's requirements?
In total, all the text and references should be checked for the journal's requirements.
Response: All the figures and tables are double checked.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The corrections that have been made are completely satisfactory and the paper can be published.
I wish the authors good luck in future publications.
Best regards,
Reviewer.
