Effects of SeNPs Fertilizer on Se and Microelement Contents, Eating and Cooking Qualities, and Volatile Organic Compounds in Rice Grains
, Xuhong Tian 1, Tianci Qiu 1, Xin Cong 1,2, Xingfei Zheng 3, Shaoyu Chen 3, Aiqing You 3, Shuiyuan Cheng 1, Muci Wu 1,* and Deze Xu 3,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
the research focus on the hot point of Se fertilizer in some special crops in China, full of interesting.
1. among the all Se treatments, the significant differences had no appeared, really?
2. the results in abstract need some data supported.
3. the final conclusion in abstract need to reconsider as the style of description, too absolutely.
4. figure 2, C and D, what is it means?
5. the part of results needs improved for a systematic statement and clear introduction, please considering.
the English language needs recheck and improving for a better understanding.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
the research focus on the hot point of Se fertilizer in some special crops in China, full of interesting.
- among the all Se treatments, the significant differences had no appeared, really?
Answer: In this manuscript, all data were presented as means ± SE (n = 3). A significant level of p < 0.05 was set as the threshold for one-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons to compare the different Se treatment groups and the significant differences were presented in the figures with different lowercase letters. Among the all Se treatments, the total Se contents of both brown and polished rice increased significantly relative to the CK (Fig. 1A), the Cd (Fig.1B), As (Fig.1D) and Cr (Fig.1E) contents changed significantly. Both of the contents and percentage of organic and inorganic Se of brown rice and polished rice changed significantly than that of in CK (Fig. 2). Compared to CK, the fatty acid content in XY1 increased significantly (Fig. 3).
- the results in abstract need some data supported.
Answer: We have revised the abstract and added some data for supporting.
- the final conclusion in abstract need to reconsider as the style of description, too absolutely.
Answer: We have revised the abstract and instead of summary, the style of description was used.
- figure 2, C and D, what is it means?
Answer: The Fig. 2C and D showed the percentage of organic Se and inorganic Se in brown rice (Fig. 2C) and polished rice (Fig. 2D), respectively. We have added the description of significant differences in Fig.2C and D. Significant differences in the percentage of organic Se in brown and polished rice are indicated by different lowercase letters based on the Duncan-test (P< 0.05, n = 3).
- the part of results needs improved for a systematic statement and clear introduction, please considering.
Answer: We have revised some part of the results with highlights in the revised version of manuscript.
Reviewer 2 Report
Study is conducted for one year only, at least two year data may given for valid conclusions.
The design part in not clear, explain your treatments in tebular form and present results accordingly.
Results and discussion are presented at single heading, I suggest to present them separately, first result and then discussion.
regarding data, only two parameters have been given, please add more data on effect of your treatment on growth, yield, quality of rice.
Author Response
- Study is conducted for one year only, at least two year data may given for valid conclusions.
Answer: Actually, we have conducted another repeated experiment in the summer of 2022 in Wuhan, however, it suffered from the once-in-a-century high temperature disaster, and the seed setting rate of our rice materials was extremely low, which could not be used for data analysis. In addition, many recent articles studying the biofortification of Se on rice were conducted for only one year (D’Amato et al 2018; Mangueze et al 2018; Muhammad et al 2019; Yan et al 2021).
D’Amato, R., Fontanella, M. C., Falcinelli, B., Beone, G. M., Bravi, E., Marconi, O., Businelli, D. (2018). Selenium Biofortification in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Sprouting: Effects on Se Yield and Nutritional Traits with Focus on Phenolic Acid Profile. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 66(16), 4082–4090.
Mangueze, A.V.D.J.; Pessoa, M.F.G.; Silva, M.J.; Ndayiragije, A.; Magaia, H.E.; Cossa, V.S.I.; Reboredo, F.H.; Carvalho, M.L.; Santos, J.P.; Guerra, M.; et al. Simultaneous Zinc and selenium biofortification in rice. Accumulation, localization and implications on the overall mineral content of the flour. J. Cereal Sci. 2018, 82, 34-41.
Muhammad Umer Farooqa; Zhicheng Tang; Rui Zeng; Yuanke Liang; Yujie Zhang; Tengda Zheng; Hla Hla Ei; Xiaoying Ye; Xiaomei Jia; Zhu, J. Accumulation, mobilization and transformation of selenium in rice grain provided with foliar sodium selenite. J. Sci. Food Agric. 2019, 99, 2892-2900
Yan, J., Chen, X., Zhu, T., Zhang, Z., Fan, J., 2021. Effects of Selenium Fertilizer Application on Yield and Selenium Accumulation Characteristics of Different Japonica Rice Varieties. Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland) 13, 10284.
- The design part in not clear, explain your treatments in tebular form and present results accordingly.
Answer: We have revised some parts including the experimental design and results of the manuscript.
- Results and discussion are presented at single heading, I suggest to present them separately, first result and then discussion.
Answer: We prepared the manuscript according to the instructions for authors of Sustainability, which suggested that the section of results might be combined with discussion, so we presented them together.
- regarding data, only two parameters have been given, please add more data on effect of your treatment on growth, yield, quality of rice.
Answer: We designed this study with the main purpose to investigate the impact of SeNPs fertilizer application on 4 kinds of rice qualities, such as contents and forms of the Se in the rice grains, microelement contents, eating and cooking qualities and volatile organic compounds in rice grains. The effect of SeNPs fertilizer on growth, yield and quality of rice have been planned to be investigated in our future study.
Reviewer 3 Report
The title of the MS is:
“Effects of SeNPs fertilizer on Se and microelement contents, eating and cooking qualities, and volatile organic compounds in rice grains
The using of nano-Se in biofortification of rice grain is very important global issue
Several published articles already discussed this theme but the complete story starting from the applying Se-NPs fertilizer till harvesting, eating, cooking and monitoring volatile organic compounds in rice grains is a great challenge, which we can notice in this MS!
Like any MS needs more improvement for the perfection!
General comment:
The main missing part in this MS is properties of these Se-fertilizers and used soil in this study????
The comments in details:
1- In abstract:
“Two types of SeNPs fertilizers were applied at five Se concentrations, including 0 (CK), 3.2, 6.4, 19.3, 38.6 g/ha.”
Please just mention these types of Se-NPs
2- I section Materials and Methods:
Again, authors mentioned
“Two types of SeNPs fertilizers were sprayed on the leaves of rice at the heading stage. SeNPs fertilizer 1 (XF, produced by Se Huinong Biotechnology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.) and 2 (XY, produced by Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences) were applied in five groups at different Se concentrations, including 0 (CK), 3.2 (XF1), 19.3 (XF2), 6.4 (XY1), 38.6 g/ha (XY2).”
Which kind of nano-Se fertilizer, chemical or biological method?
Which size of nanoparticles did use?
And more details about these nanoparticles, as the main treatments in your study?
3- The main missing part in this MS beside the properties of these Se-fertilizers, the properties of used soil in this study????
Which pH, EC, nutrient contents and mainly Se content in this soil?
Did soil suffer from any pollutants? like Cr, Pb, Cd, and As? This is missing to, and need to clarify, please?
4- Keywords: please don’t use any word already mentioned in the title
5- Where the fractionations of Se in rice grain? It is very important to see the impact of applied nano-Se fertilizers on mineral and organic forms of Se (mainly seleno-proteins of Se), while Figure 2 is not enough?
6- The list of refs. is not acceptable at all, not UpToDate?
Where the cited articles in 2023, 2022, only one 2021?
In general, these all refs. should be very UpToDate, please
Major revision is needed
it is ok
Author Response
1- In abstract:
“Two types of SeNPs fertilizers were applied at five Se concentrations, including 0 (CK), 3.2, 6.4, 19.3, 38.6 g/ha.”
Please just mention these types of Se-NPs
Answer: We have revised the abstract and deleted the detail description of the two SeNPs fertilizers and just mention the types of SeNPs.
2- I section Materials and Methods:
Again, authors mentioned
“Two types of SeNPs fertilizers were sprayed on the leaves of rice at the heading stage. SeNPs fertilizer 1 (XF, produced by Se Huinong Biotechnology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.) and 2 (XY, produced by Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences) were applied in five groups at different Se concentrations, including 0 (CK), 3.2 (XF1), 19.3 (XF2), 6.4 (XY1), 38.6 g/ha (XY2).”
Which kind of nano-Se fertilizer, chemical or biological method?
Answer: Both of the two SeNPs fertilizers were synthesized by biological method.
Which size of nanoparticles did use?
Answer: The size of SeNPs of fertilizer XF is less than 100 nm and fertilizer XY is ranging from 100 to 200 nm, respectively.
And more details about these nanoparticles, as the main treatments in your study?
Answer: We have revised the experimental design and added more details about the two SeNPs, and the revision parts were highlighted.
3- The main missing part in this MS beside the properties of these Se-fertilizers, the properties of used soil in this study????
Which pH, EC, nutrient contents and mainly Se content in this soil?
Did soil suffer from any pollutants? like Cr, Pb, Cd, and As? This is missing to, and need to clarify, please?
Answer: We have added the description of the soil in the revised MS. The physical and chemical properties of the soil (0-20 cm) were pH (H2O), 8.05; electrical conductivity, 203.82 μs/cm; organic matter, 11.1 g/kg; total N, 1.35 g/kg; available P, 10.5 mg/kg; available K, 120.3 mg/kg; total Se, 0.23 mg/kg; total Cd, 0.48 mg/kg; total As, 11.08 mg/kg; total lead (Pb), 35.75 mg/kg; total chromium (Cr), 88.98 mg/kg; total Zinc (Zn), 96.67 mg/kg.
4- Keywords: please don’t use any word already mentioned in the title
Answer: We have updated the key words in the revised MS.
5- Where the fractionations of Se in rice grain? It is very important to see the impact of applied nano-Se fertilizers on mineral and organic forms of Se (mainly seleno-proteins of Se), while Figure 2 is not enough?
Answer: Actually, we have tried to determine the Se species such as selenocysteine (SeCys2), Se-methylselenocysteine (SeMeCys), selenomethionine (SeMet), Se6+ and Se4+ in rice grain, however, the Se contents in our tested rice sample ranged from 0.03 to 0.41 mg/kg, which were too low for the detection of Se species through ICP-MS, the errors in contents of Se species were too large to be used for analysis, some samples even detected no peak signals.
6- The list of refs. is not acceptable at all, not UpToDate?
Where the cited articles in 2023, 2022, only one 2021?
In general, these all refs. should be very UpToDate, please
Answer: We agree with the referee and added the citation of articles in 2022 and 2023.
Major revision is needed
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
No comments
Author Response
thanks for your valuable comments.
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear authors
many thanks for your corrections
only one comment please:
"The physical and chemical properties of the soil (0-20 cm) were pH (H2O), 8.05; electrical conductivity, 203.82 μs/cm; organic matter, 11.1 g/kg; total N, 1.35 g/kg; available P, 10.5 mg/kg; available K, 120.3 mg/kg; total Se, 0.23 mg/kg; total Cd, 0.48 mg/kg; total As, 11.08 mg/kg; total lead (Pb), 35.75 mg/kg; total chromium (Cr), 88.98 mg/kg; Zinc (Zn), 96.67 mg/kg."
please try to express on soil salinity (EC) in dS m-1
Please all total nutrient contents should be in available (not total) form
many thanks again!
it is ok, thanks
Author Response
Answer: Thanks for your valuable comments.We have revised the description of EC in dS m-1 and all total nutrient contents have been revised in available form.
