Is High pH the Key Factor of Alkali Stress on Plant Growth and Physiology? A Case Study with Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Seedlings
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript is written well and the quality of work is good. There are some grammatical and typewriting errors that authors need to revise it.
Introduction needs more information about the effects of alkaline condition on plants. Please don't explain some general statements about salinity, be specific more.
Materials and methods are good but need more details such as the growth stage of wheat during the sampling, adjusting the pH, statistical design ...
Results and discussion are written well.
Conclusion needs more specific results.
Author Response
Thank you for your suggestions. We have corrected the sentences that may lead to some misunderstandings. The changes are highlighted with yellow in the text.
- The introduction needs more information about the effects of alkaline conditions on plants. Please don't explain some general statements about salinity, be specific more.
Response: Both salt stress and alkali stress include osmotic stress and ion toxicity stress. So, many stress mechanisms of salt stress and alkali stress are the same. Therefore, when the research progress of alkali stress was stated, the research progress of salt stress was also introduced at the same time.
In view of the comments made by reviewers, added the literature of research on the effects of alkali stress on plants. Added introduction of research on the difference in saline-alkali stress was introduced, and related literature was cited.
- Materials and methods are good but need more details such as the growth stage of wheat during the sampling, adjusting the pH, statistical design ...
Changes: Corrected.
- Conclusion needs more specific results.
Changes: Corrected.
Reviewer 2 Report
There are too many grammatical errors. The paper must be fully revised!
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you for your suggestions. We have corrected the sentences that may lead to some misunderstandings. The changes are highlighted with yellow in the text.
- in line 92 ...disinfect with 75% alcohol for 5 92 min and rinse with distilled water three times....
in line 95 ...transplant it into a black plastic bucket
Changes: Corrected.
- in line 107 ... "filiming fresh leaves at 105℃for 2 h". - this expression is difficult to understand, it should be clarified
in line 112 ...catotenoid....
Changes: Corrected.
- weighing method, The water content of leaves.... the water should be written with a lowercase letter
Changes: Corrected.
Responses: Some test methods for the water content of leaves have been deleted.
- in line 130 ...the decrease of extinction of H2O2(Patra, Kar and Mishra 1978). SOD activity was meas-... with a small subscript, this is a chemical formula, follow the rules for writing chemical formulas
Changes: Corrected.
- in chapter 2.3, it is not stated according to which formula "Photosynthetic Pigment Content" was determined
Changes: Corrected.
- in Chapter 2.4 Determinatio of Lipid Peroxidation there is no information on how the parameter was measured, what method was used
Changes: Corrected.
- in chapter 2.6 in line 127 ...was centrifuged at 5000×g at 4℃ for 15min, and the supernatant was used for.... please clarify the unit for shaking, the expression 5000xg sounds strange.
Response: Centrifugation technology has been widely used in biological sciences, especially in the research fields of biochemistry and molecular biology, And centrifugal force will be generated. Usually, centrifugal force is often expressed as a multiple of the earth's gravity, so it is called the relative centrifugal force "RCF", or multiply the number by "g". For example, the average radius of the centrifuge head is 6cm, and when the rotating speed is 60,000 r/min, the centrifugal force is 240,000× g, which means that the centrifugal force acting on the centrifuged material is 240,000 times the daily gravity.
- In Chapter 2.9. at line 145 ...Before harvest of seedlings, Pn , E rates, Gs and Ci of wheat seedling leaves were.... parameter abbreviations were used for the first time, their meanings should be explained
Changes: Corrected.
Net photosynthetic rate (PN) (µmol (CO2) m−2s−1) , transpiration (E) (mmol (H2O) m−2 s−1 ), stomatal conductance (gs) (mol (H2O) m−2 s−1 ), and internal CO2 concentration (Ci) (µmol (CO2)mol−1 )
- in Figure 1 there is an abbreviation CK, its meaning is not described in earlier parts of the methodology, you have to guess its meaning
Changes: Corrected.
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear authors
In this research, an interesting subject has been worked. Although the present study is the laboratory and has been done once, which reduces the validity of the results, it has investigated several related traits. The materials, methods, and results section has some drawbacks that must be resolved. This manuscript must be revised in the following cases: These shortcomings are also highlighted in the paper.
- English writing of the article has many mistakes identified in the text that should be corrected. Line 92-95: Sentences should be expressed in the past time, not in the command form.
Line 106-109: Seedling growth characteristics were assessed several days following germination?
Line 115: The description of lipid peroxidation determination is lacking in detail. Write more completely.
Line 144 and 145: Pn, E, Gs, and Ci traits should be described in the first instance when they are mentioned. For example, net photosynthetic rate (Pn)
Line 150-152: What experimental design was utilized to examine the data's variance?
In Figures 1-6, the applicable treatments are described. It is preferable to display treatments on the horizontal axis with other indications to prevent errors. The average column lettering in the figures is of poor quality.
Line 214: Under figure 3, Pn, E, Gs, and Ci traits should be described.
Line 239: In Figure 4, it should be clarified that the root, stem, and leaf mean comparisons and lettering were performed independently.
In line 3 and the references section, scientific names must be italicized.
The references must be formatted according to the journal's guidelines.
Best regards
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you for your suggestions. We have corrected the sentences that may lead to some misunderstandings. The changes are highlighted with yellow in the text.
- Line 92-95: Sentences should be expressed in the past time, not in the command form.
Changes: Corrected.
- Seedling growth characteristics were assessed several days following germination?
Responses: This question has been supplemented in the article. After 5 days of germination, the wheat seeds were transplanted into a culture barrel and after 25 days of culture in a culture barrel, stress treatment was carried out.
- Line 115: The description of lipid peroxidation determination is lacking in detail. Write more completely.
Changes: Corrected.
- Line 144 and 145: Pn, E, Gs, and Ci traits should be described in the first instance when they are mentioned. For example, net photosynthetic rate (Pn)
Changes: Corrected.
- Line 150-152: What experimental design was utilized to examine the data's variance?
Responses: The main one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the variance of different experimental treatments.
- In Figures 1-6, the applicable treatments are described. It is preferable to display treatments on the horizontal axis with other indications to prevent errors. The average column lettering in the figures is of poor quality.
Responses: Thank you very much for this suggestion, we realized this problem when we first wrote our paper. We present the specific name of stress treatment on the horizontal axis. But the stress treatment name is too complicated, for example, one of the stress treatments is neutral salt stress with a high pH value, If you don't use the abbreviated form, according to the direct description marked in the figure, it will make the passage sentences difficult to understand. Therefore, the simplified form is used in the figure. There are precedents in other similar articles.
- Line 214: Under figure 3, Pn, E, Gs, and Ci traits should be described.
Changes: Corrected.
- Line 239: In Figure 4, it should be clarified that the root, stem, and leaf mean comparisons and lettering were performed independently.
Changes: Corrected.
- In line 3 and the references section, scientific names must be italicized.
Changes: Corrected.
Reviewer 4 Report
The manuscript contains interesting research results, the experiment was properly performed and statistically designed. the results of the research are presented in a clear manner. There are many stylistic errors in the manuscript, linguistic errors for example:
in line 92 ...disinfect with 75% alcohol for 5 92 min and rinse with distilled water three times....
in line 95 ...transplant it into a black plastic bucket
and many others, in the chapter of the method we use the past tense,
in line 107 ... "filiming fresh leaves at 105℃for 2 h". - this expression is difficult to understand, it should be clarified
in line 112 ...catotenoid....
stylistic errors:
in line 108 ...weighing method, The water content of leaves.... the water should be written with a lowercase letter
in line 130 ...the decrease of extinction of H2O2(Patra, Kar and Mishra 1978). SOD activity was meas-... with a small subscript, this is a chemical formula, follow the rules for writing chemical formulas
in chapter 2.3, it is not stated according to which formula "Photosynthetic Pigment Content" was determined
in Chapter 2.4 Determinatio of Lipid Peroxidation there is no information on how the parameter was measured, what method was used
in chapter 2.6 in line 127 ...was centrifuged at 5000×g at 4℃ for 15min, and the supernatant was used for.... please clarify the unit for shaking, the expression 5000xg sounds strange
In Chapter 2.9. at line 145 ...Before harvest of seedlings, Pn , E rates, Gs and Ci of wheat seedling leaves were.... parameter abbreviations were used for the first time, their meanings should be explained
in Figure 1 there is an abbreviation CK, its meaning is not described in earlier parts of the methodology, you have to guess its meaning
Author Response
Thank you for your suggestions. We have corrected the sentences that may lead to some misunderstandings. The changes are highlighted with yellow in the text.
- In line 92 ...disinfect with 75% alcohol for 5 92 min and rinse with distilled water three times....
in line 95 ...transplant it into a black plastic bucket and many others, in the chapter on the method we use the past tense,
Changes: Corrected.
- in line 107 ... "filiming fresh leaves at 105℃for 2 h". - this expression is difficult to understand, it should be clarified
in line 112 ...catotenoid.... stylistic errors:
Changes: Corrected.
- in line 108 ...weighing method, The water content of leaves.... the water should be written with a lowercase letter
Changes: Corrected.
- in line 130 ...the decrease of extinction of H2O2(Patra, Kar and Mishra 1978). SOD activity was meas-... with a small subscript, this is a chemical formula, follow the rules for writing chemical formulas
Changes: Corrected.
- in chapter 2.3, it is not stated according to which formula "Photosynthetic Pigment Content" was determined
Changes: Corrected.
- in Chapter 2.4 Determinatio of Lipid Peroxidation there is no information on how the parameter was measured, what method was used
Changes: Corrected.
- in chapter 2.6 in line 127 ...was centrifuged at 5000×g at 4℃ for 15min, and the supernatant was used for.... please clarify the unit for shaking, the expression 5000xg sounds strange
Response: Centrifugation technology has been widely used in biological sciences, especially in the research fields of biochemistry and molecular biology, And centrifugal force will be generated. Usually, centrifugal force is often expressed as a multiple of the earth's gravity, so it is called the relative centrifugal force "RCF", or multiply the number by "g". For example, the average radius of the centrifuge head is 6cm, and when the rotating speed is 60,000 r/min, the centrifugal force is 240,000× g, which means that the centrifugal force acting on the centrifuged material is 240,000 times of the daily gravity.
- In Chapter 2.9. at line 145 ...Before harvest of seedlings, Pn , E rates, Gs and Ci of wheat seedling leaves were.... parameter abbreviations were used for the first time, their meanings should be explained
Changes: Corrected.
- in Figure 1 there is an abbreviation CK, its meaning is not described in earlier parts of the methodology, you have to guess its meaning
Changes: Corrected.
