Coordinating High Yield and Superior Eating Quality of Rice: A Case Study of Hybrid Varieties Derived from Longke638S and Jing4155S
, Shengming Xia 1,†, Ting Du 1, Yifan Fu 1, Yuanzhu Yang 2,* and Fei Wang 1,*
Tsuneo Kato
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript studied about the yield, eating quality, and their related traits of 21 hybrid varieties whose female parents were Longke638S or Jing4155S, as a case study. Transcriptome analysis was also conducted in the three varieties. The title involved “coordinating high yield and superior eating quality”, and this issue is an important in future rice breeding in general. I believe this manuscript involved useful information, the experiments were generally sound, although the discussion of the relations between transcriptome results and yield and quality results was too superficial, I feel. On the other hand, the conclusion for the “coordination”, this is very important in this manuscript, was insufficiently stated in Discussion and Conclusion sections. And, it was completely not in Abstract. The authors should state clearly the “conclusion for the coordination” from the experiments, not general trends, in Abstract, Discussion, and Conclusion. I conclude that this manuscript may be accepted as an article in Agronomy, after minor revision. The parts to be revised are listed below.
General: All of the scientific names (e.g., Oryza sativa, japonica, indica), locus and/or allele names (Wx, ALK, etc.), and statistical parameters (p, R) should be in italic (Locus ID in Table 5 should not be in italic). Please check the superscript and subscript. For example, ha-1, m-2, log2 => ha-1, m-2, log2 and so on. It need not to abbreviate when a term existed only once in the manuscript (e.g., MARA in line 138, and others).
L9: “2” is not described at line 5. Also, “a” and “b” are not at line 6 to 11. What is “1” at line 12?
L25: I believe that “lower amylose content” is associated with higher grain stickiness, and generally contributes higher eating quality. Why lower AC contributed to lower eating quality?
L28-30: Were there any coordinating varieties between higher yield and higher eating quality? How to manage to obtain the coordination in the future? Please state clearly the conclusion of this study here.
L105: 51 => 51’
L111: 27.8℃
L133: Please describe clearly that the 12 male parents (but 11 in line 134?) in Table S1 were cultivated as the same condition as the 21 hybrid varieties and one control, only in 2020. What is the “HHZ” in Table 4? This was not in Table S1.
L158: Was the grain yield based on the filled spikelets only?
L178: according to the national standards of quality evaluation GB/T 17891-2017, the People’s Republic of China, including…
L184: according to the GB/T 17891-2017.
L187: according to the GB/T 17891-2017.
L215: What is QC?
L224: In Figure 4, log10 was used (Q value). Which is correct?
L234: Move the Figure 1 to L258
L241: Move the Figure 3 to L315.
L253: I think that spikelets per panicle was not mainly contribute to the variation in grain yield among the present materials, because of low correlation coefficient between them (Figure 2), although this trait could contribute the discrimination of these two rice hybrid groups. Therefore, “spikelets per panicle” may be deleted here and the abstract (line 24), and add “total nitrogen uptake” at line 253.
L327: What are GO analysis and GO term?
L327 and others: For example, “…up-regulated genes in spikelets at flowering stage of LLYHZ compared with JLYHZ (A), LLYHZ compared with JLY1212(B), and…
L339: Adjust the font size in Table 5. What are “Group” and “up” and “down”? Down-regulated in LLYHZ compared with JLYHZ or JLY1212? Location => Locus ID, Gene name => Locus name
L347: I agree with that higher yield in the present hybrid varieties compared with ordinary inbreds resulted from their larger panicles. However, I cannot agree with this statement in the present materials within hybrid varieties only, because of the low correlation coefficients (Figure 2, and also in line 253). Please revise this part.
L425: Delete “6. Patent”.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript provides a fairly robust dataset on enhancing eating quality alongside high-yielding in rice hybrid breeding. I suggest accepting the manuscript following minor revision.
Specific comments
The manuscript needs major English editing, particularly long sentences.
Scientific names should be in italic as in lines 14, 36, and throughout the manuscript
(-1) in (ha-1) in line 20,21,39, 125, 127,265 should be superscript as well throughout the manuscript
The introduction section needs to be improved, and the hypothesis needs to be clarified.
Line 119, 121,156,158 (m2) "2" should be superscript as well throughout the manuscript
Line 133 “The tested varieties were from an incomplete diallel cross population” "were derived from" also the obtained hybrids are not registered varieties it could be be “The tested genotypes were derived from an incomplete diallel cross population, as well throughout the manuscript
I think “line × tester mating design” is more appropriate for this case than “incomplete diallel cross population”
Line 321: Citation of Figure S2 and figure 1 is not appropriate in the subsection of “Statistical analysis”
Figures 1 and 3 are presented before their related text
Tables 2 and 4 are not well presented, the traits could be abbreviated and presented in complete name as a footnote below the table.
Line 327 please present GO in complete name with its abbreviation
Table S5 is cited in Line 333 while Table S3 and S4 are not shown in the text
The discussion section needs to be extended and improved, the obtained results should be discussed better.
Please revise the reference style, keep all journals as abbreviated (as Food and Energy Security), and complete the missing page numbers (as reference number 9).
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
