Nematicidal and Toxicity Effects of Eupatorium adenophorum Spreng against the Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne incognita in Soil Producing Cucumber
, Ghasem Parmoon 4, Qiuxia Wang 1,2, Dongdong Yan 1,2, Wensheng Fang 1,2 and Min Zhang 1,2
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
See comments on the manuscript
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Need English revision
Author Response
Dear Editors,
Thank you very much for reviewing our manuscript. Surely, this sound review had a very favorable effect on improving the quality of this manuscript. We have consider all comments and modified the manuscript according to them. Please see the comments, our replies, and modifications as follows.
All changes made by Track changes software were accepted. Please also see the following comments and our reply and modifications:
Line 1: The title is impressive.
Answer: Thank you for your positive point of view.
Line 3: I suggest that the author of this manuscript give it to someone in his institute for assistance in grammar, style, and sentence structure.
Answer: The manuscript is fully checked for English writing. Thank you for your suggestion.
Line 34: Reference.
Answer: It was added: Aydinli, G.; Mennan, S. Identification of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) from greenhouses in the Middle Black Sea Region of Turkey. Turk J Zool. 2016, 40, 675-685. doi:10.3906/zoo-1508-19.
Line 136: Cultivar name? and the degree of resistance?
Answer: ‘cucumber cultivar (Jinyou 35) susceptible to M. incognita’ was added. This cultivar is sensitive and susceptible to M. incognita.
Zhang, W.; Sun, W.; Wang, Y.; Liu, H.; Zhang, S.; Dong, B.; Ji, X.; Qiao, K. Management of Meloidogyne incognita on Cucumber with a New Nonfumigant Nematicide Fluopimomide. Plant Disease Journal. 2022, 106, 151-155. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-05-21-0943-RE
Line 143: Soil structure and texture?
Answer: The following sentences were added: The soil comprised 12.3% sand, 64.4% silt and 23.3% clay, organic matter content of 33.5 g kg−1 soil and pH 6.5. The soil moisture of 17.8% (w/w) was measured by heating the soil in a drying oven at 105 ± 5 °C until mass constancy was achieved.
Line 145: What is the resistance degree of nematode?
Answer: It was explained in the previous comment (L 136). ‘susceptible to M. incognita’ was added.
Line 150: how could you determine the nematode immobile? Did you test if they are alive or not?
Answer: The numbers of dead and live nematodes were counted under a dissecting microscope. The nematodes were lightly touched with a dissecting needle. If they did not move, we considered them dead. It was explained in the next paragraph.
Line 157: How? Add reference.
Answer: It was added.
Line 291: Purify the references to be strict to the subject? Discussion must be rewritten to separate paragraph according to the current results.
Answer: There are some modifications in the references. The discussion paragraphs were also rewritten with some improvements.
Line 390: The research is considered a good addition to increase the efficiency of controlling nematodes intrusive on cucurbits.
Answer: Thank you for your positive point of view.
Line 414: Reduce the references which are not strictly to the subject.
Answer: It was done.
Thank you again for your worthy comments.
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper has been submitted to Agriculture and presents the results of a study on nematicidal and toxicity effects of Eupatorium adenophorum against a cucumber pest, the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. The aims were to study the mortality of M. incognita juveniles to different concentrations of leaves and roots-stems of E. adenophorum at different incubation temperatures; to investigate the impact of the leaves and roots-stems of this plant on cucumber plants height and fruit fresh weight; and to identify key chemical compounds from the leaves and roots-stems of E. adenophorum. Nematode mortality decreased by roots-stems treatment and increasing temperature and time. Nematodes were more sensitive to roots-stems treatment than leaf treatment at all tested condition. The E. adenophorum 40 mg/g concentration of roots-stems also produced the highest height of cucumber stem and the highest cucumber fresh weight in the greenhouse. (E)-beta-famesene, α-pinene and D-limonene, as main identified components in fumigant plant, increased the mortality rate of M. incognita juveniles in roots-stems treatment. The study is well written, but it doesn’t bring novelty to area. It is not clear to me why M. incognita mortality decreased over time with the increase of concentrations of leaves Eupatorium adenophorum and temperatures. Despite the journal scope I missed an in-depth insight into the nematode behaviour, biology, physiology or ecology.
Comments:
L18: it should be in italic; and whatever it shows up in the manuscript.
L23: is this condition similar to that found at field?
L56: it shouldn't abbreviate in the begin of phrases.
L62: I suggest “several Eupatorium spp.”
L129: about? It should be exactly.
L255: weight
Author Response
Dear Editors,
Thank you very much for reviewing our manuscript. Surely, this sound review had a very favorable effect on improving the quality of this manuscript. We have consider all comments and modified the manuscript according to them. Please see the comments, our replies, and modifications as follows.
This paper has been submitted to Agriculture and presents the results of a study on nematicidal and toxicity effects of Eupatorium adenophorum against a cucumber pest, the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. The aims were to study the mortality of M. incognita juveniles to different concentrations of leaves and roots-stems of E. adenophorum at different incubation temperatures; to investigate the impact of the leaves and roots-stems of this plant on cucumber plants height and fruit fresh weight; and to identify key chemical compounds from the leaves and roots-stems of E. adenophorum. Nematode mortality decreased by roots-stems treatment and increasing temperature and time. Nematodes were more sensitive to roots-stems treatment than leaf treatment at all tested condition. The E. adenophorum 40 mg/g concentration of roots-stems also produced the highest height of cucumber stem and the highest cucumber fresh weight in the greenhouse. (E)-beta-famesene, α-pinene and D-limonene, as main identified components in fumigant plant, increased the mortality rate of M. incognita juveniles in roots-stems treatment. The study is well written, but it doesn’t bring novelty to area. It is not clear to me why M. incognita mortality decreased over time with the increase of concentrations of leaves Eupatorium adenophorum and temperatures. Despite the journal scope I missed an in-depth insight into the nematode behaviour, biology, physiology or ecology.
Answer: Thank you for your positive point of view. About the journal scope, please note that the manuscript was submitted to the special Issue ‘Sustainable Pest Management in Agriculture’ which matched with its scope. An increase in nematode mortality with increasing plant concentrations and exposure time has been reported in several studies and it is a common occurrence.
Comments:
L18: it should be in italic; and whatever it shows up in the manuscript.
Answer: It was corrected and considered throughout the manuscript.
L23: is this condition similar to that found at field?
Answer: In the greenhouse, both root and stem had a very good performance in controlling the larvae of J2s of root-knot nematode. However, dry leaf powder unfortunately caused the growth of the nematode population and was not able to control the nematode population and damage. A very low percentage of mortality was observed. In greenhouse studies, fruit fresh weight and plant height were higher in root-stems treatment and higher than those in leaf treatment. Due to the limitation in the number of abstract words, it is not possible to add more explain in this section. Please note that many modification were made based on your and the first reviewer comments.
L56: it shouldn't abbreviate in the begin of phrases.
Answer: It was corrected.
L62: I suggest “several Eupatorium spp.”
Answer: Yes, it's good. It was modified as your comment.
L129: about? It should be exactly.
Answer: Yes, That’s right. It was removed.
L255: weight
Answer: It was corrected.
Thank you again for your worthy comments.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
I see that much work has been done to increase the paper's quality.
All suggestions raised in the the first round of revision were attended by the authors.
I think now the paper is ready to be published in Agriculture.
Sincerely
