Sustainable Cucurbit Breeding and Production in Asia Using Public–Private Partnerships by the World Vegetable Center

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

            Basic reporting

            In the manuscript “Sustainable cucurbit breeding and production in Asia using public-private partnerships developed by the World Vegetable Center” the authors present the efforts of the global cucumber breeding program of the WorldVeg on four species: bitter gourd, tropical pumpkin, ridge pumpkin and sponge.

By the way it is elaborated, the work is of interest, being presented the importance of the respective species, the results obtained in breeding programme, including the perspectives of creating new cultivars with enhanced yield and resistance to major diseases, in the conditions of increasing the genetic risk and narrowing the genetic background of the species, the role and utility of public-private partnership in breeding these cucurbit species, product development, sales and marketing etc.

The manuscript is well written and may be an appropriate contribution as a “Perspective” type / category in Agronomy journal.

General issues and recommendations / suggestions for improvements

The title shows that the addressed aspects of cucurbit breeding and production using public-private partnerships are located in Asia. In addition, the title mentions that these public-private partnerships were developed by the World Vegetable Center.

The title is accurate, informative, unambiguous, understandable to readers and reflects properly the content of the article.

On the other hand, the Abstract should provide to the readers some (briefly) additional information about the region covered by the manuscript and the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) unit.

Because not all potential readers know that WorldVeg aims to reduce malnutrition and alleviate poverty in developing nations through improving production and consumption of vegetables, a (very) brief reference in this regard in Abstract would be welcome.

This also must be applying to the full text of the article (in Introduction), where the authors refer to WorldVeg for the first time (e.g. before the line L 68). Otherwise, it may appear that cucurbit breeding is the only or main concern of WorldVeg (and solanaceous crops and bulb alliums etc.

Other two aspects that would welcome if they are included briefly in the Abstract.

1. Geographical location, as defined region of the Asia. This should complete the large area of Asia continent reveals in the title. Is it about South and Southeast Asia mentioned in the Introduction (lines L 52-53): “The public and private sectors in South and Southeast Asia have made major contributions to cucurbit genetic improvement”? Is this also the area and sphere of interest covered by WorldVeg?
2. Cucurbits enormous economic importance to smallholder farmers in Asia (as you affirm in L 47-50, including that “Asia accounted for 83%” of the global production).

These two additions can be easily and adequately introduced in the Abstract and will certainly provide a more comprehensive perspective of the paper content and interest.

At the end of the Abstract, I suggest deleting the sentence ''Outputs of this public-private partnership are discussed.".

Eventually, if it does not extend too much the Abstract, instead of this sentence it can be included very synthetic the final idea of the Introduction section (L 75-77), reformulated as a result of current work.

In section “2. Background of the program” would be appropriate a short presentation of the WorldVeg activity, through which the reader who does not know this institution and its object of activity to be better initiated to understand the context of this paper.

It may be interesting to know that in addition to improving cucurbits, the center has concerns about breeding of several other groups of globally important vegetables, and these vegetables can be used in poorer areas. It is also of interest that in these areas the bred vegetables can serve as an important source of income and can help fight micronutrient deficiencies. There are aspects through which the efforts of the authors and their manuscript deserve extra attention. Of course, this brief presentation of WorldVeg's overall breeding activities and the global area covered can also be included in a suitable place in the 'Introduction' section (maybe it would be better here).

Please revise Figure 1 and text in L 135-137 "Based on these fruit traits, nearly 20 bitter gourd market types exist in Asia (Fig. 1), nearly half of which are cultivated for markets in India, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.". I did not understand very well the connection between the types of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) in the images and the explanation in the text. Also, why the South Asian types are highlighted in the red rectangle. A few clarifications could clarify the respective connections and the major differences that appear in the images between the South Asian types and the rest.

The paper is well written, but a revision to avoid possible errors is welcome, especially in the references. It is necessary both to eliminate some typographical errors (e.g. “Austraila”, se L390) and to respect the style of the journal.

Author Response

1. On the other hand, the Abstractshould provide to the readers some (briefly) additional information about the region covered by the manuscript and the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) unit. Because not all potential readers know that WorldVeg aims to reduce malnutrition and alleviate poverty in developing nations through improving production and consumption of vegetables, a (very) brief reference in this regard in Abstract would be welcome. This also must be applying to the full text of the article (in Introduction), where the authors refer to WorldVeg for the first time (e.g. before the line L 68). Otherwise, it may appear that cucurbit breeding is the only or main concern of WorldVeg (and solanaceous crops and bulb alliums etc.

Response: Information has been added in the abstract (yellow highlighted) as well as in the Introduction section (yellow highlighted)

2. Geographical location, as defined region of the Asia. This should complete the large area of Asia continent reveals in the title. Is it about South and Southeast Asia mentioned in the Introduction: “The public and private sectors in South and Southeast Asia have made major contributions to cucurbit genetic improvement”? Is this also the area and sphere of interest covered by WorldVeg? Cucurbits enormous economic importance to smallholder farmers in Asia (as you affirm in L 47-50, including that “Asia accounted for 83%” of the global production).

Response: Information has been added in the abstract as suggested by the reviewer (yellow highlighted in the abstract).

3. At the end of the Abstract, I suggest deleting the sentence ''Outputs of this public-private partnership are discussed.

Response: Sentence deleted.

4. In section “2. Background of the program” would be appropriate a short presentation of the WorldVeg activity, through which the reader who does not know this institution and its object of activity to be better initiated to understand the context of this paper. It may be interesting to know that in addition to improving cucurbits, the center has concerns about breeding of several other groups of globally important vegetables, and these vegetables can be used in poorer areas. It is also of interest that in these areas the bred vegetables can serve as an important source of income and can help fight micronutrient deficiencies. There are aspects through which the efforts of the authors and their manuscript deserve extra attention. Of course, this brief presentation of WorldVeg's overall breeding activities and the global area covered can also be included in a suitable place in the 'Introduction' section.

Response: This information has been added in the Introduction section (yellow highlighted) which is more appropriate place in the manuscript.

5. Please revise Figure 1 and text in L 135-137 "Based on these fruit traits, nearly 20 bitter gourd market types exist in Asia (Fig. 1), nearly half of which are cultivated for markets in India, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.". I did not understand very well the connection between the types of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) in the images and the explanation in the text. Also, why the South Asian types are highlighted in the red rectangle. A few clarifications could clarify the respective connections and the major differences that appear in the images between the South Asian types and the rest.

Response: Appropriate explanation added in the text. South Asian fruit types comprise a larger group (10 fruit types), hence to emphasize this point this group is delimited by red boundary (see yellow highlighted).  

6. The paper is well written, but a revision to avoid possible errors is welcome, especially in the references. It is necessary both to eliminate some typographical errors (e.g. “Austraila”, se L390) and to respect the style of the journal.

Response: Indeed, there were typos. Manuscript has now been improved by MDPI English Language Editing Service.

Reviewer 2 Report

Nothing is done on the floral biology of these species. The bottleneck in diversity by breeding lines from open populations is not given for the different species. In my opinion there are the key parameters to evaluate the future of the programs.

I would have a scheme weighting works on disease resistance programs (virus and mildew) on other criteria (nutritive value and pomology for fruit).

Probably, the readers would know the number of genetic resources, the average number of selections planned by year, for each species.

I would sustain such mix public-private programs -I was involved for 30 years in a program to breed sunflower, but the returns to screen new resistance genes because of pathogen evolution, were not as high as expected, and the management of disease resistance genes was hampered by the diverse strategies of companies, creating boulevards to pathogens. This is the long term pitfall, however, good luck, in your management.

Author Response

1. Nothing is done on the floral biology of these species. The bottleneck in diversity by breeding lines from open populations is not given for the different species. In my opinion there are the key parameters to evaluate the future of the programs.

Response: Floral biology of these cucurbits has been adequately covered in the literature (Dehpande et al., 1980; Deyto and Cervancia, 2009; Silva et al., 2012; Loy 2012). It is unlikely that floral biology of these crops was a major bottleneck that restricted genetic diversity among breeding lines.

2. I would have a scheme weighting works on disease resistance programs (virus and mildew) on other criteria (nutritive value and pomology for fruit).

Response: We have not found a possible trade-off between improved disease resistance and nutrient content but we assess the nutrient contents of lines to make sure that nutrient contents of disease resistant lines are not compromised.

3. Probably, the readers would know the number of genetic resources, the average number of selections planned by year, for each species.

Response: Sufficient details on the developed lines have been provided in the text along with tables and also the planned Crop Open Field Days. Thus readers interested in the WorldVeg Cucurbit Breeding Programs can approach us for further information and access to the material, and can observe the material during the Crop Open Field Days. 

4.. I would sustain such mix public-private programs -I was involved for 30 years in a program to breed sunflower, but the returns to screen new resistance genes because of pathogen evolution, were not as high as expected, and the management of disease resistance genes was hampered by the diverse strategies of companies, creating boulevards to pathogens. This is the long term pitfall, however, good luck, in your management.

Response: Our program searches for new and complementary disease resistance genes and we will design markers with the view towards gene pyramiding through marker-assisted selection to improve chances of durable resistance. Many Asian seed companies have adopted MAS to pyramid begomovirus resistance genes in tomato varieties.