A Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the WIF1 Promoter Region Regulates the Wool Length in Rabbits
, Jiali Li 1, Zhiyuan Bao 1, Yang Chen 1, Yan Liu 2 and Xinsheng Wu 1,3,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
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Reviewer 2 Report
It is an interesting effort identifying a SNP in the promoter region with likely involvement in rabbit wool/hair growth. I have limited knowledge of the assay procedures, but the text would appear appropriately detailed. The discussion is well direct at what the results reveal. The manuscript is clear and concise.
I have suggested a minimal number of modifications to the text.
Ln 36: ‘disordered’ what is the nature of the disorder(s). This should be included
Ln 37: remove ‘rabbit wool’ add ‘the’
Ln 41: remove ‘The gene modification’ add ‘Gene modification’
In Tab le 2: set up values in a similar manner
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2.08±0.10 (14) |
2.12±0.14 (8) |
2.18±0.12 (4) |
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3.32±0.10 (7) |
3.35±0.13 (6) |
3.38±0.15 (15) |
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etc |
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Ln 230: remove ‘The most of’ add ‘Most of the’
Ln 242: remove ‘In conclusion, different’ add ‘Different’ remove In conclusion as there is a specific conclusion section
Author Response
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Reviewer 3 Report
This manuscript is relatively well-written and provides a straight-forward evaluation of a promoter-region SNP associated with expression of the WIF1 gene and potential association with rabbit wool fiber length.
Points to be addressed or corrected:
Line 1. Title – It seems that the WIF1 promoter SNP is associated with altered gene expression. As a result it is potentially associated with wool fibre length. However, beyond statistical association, it is not clear nor certain from the experiments in this paper that this gene regulates wool length. Potentially it does, but the authors did not prove this fact.
Line 49. Do you mean undifferentiated instead of “undeferential” state?
Line 72. Were all rabbits in the same phase of hair growth (i.e. growth phase vs resting phase)?
Line 105. GAPDH is typically upregulated during epithelial proliferation - thus it would not be the best for normalization. Why was this gene chosen as reference, and was it shown to be stably regulated in this system?
Author Response
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