SSR Genotyping and Marker–Trait Association with Yield Components in a Kazakh Germplasm Collection of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)
, Kulpash Bulatova 1 and Yuri Shavrukov 2,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear authors,
I think that your work is devoted to important issue, and have been carried out competently and properly. The manuscript is well written and presented.
However, I suggest several corrections, most of them are editorial ones, so MS can be published after minor revision.
Abstract
The text of the abstract (300 words) is one and a half times more than recommended by the Instruction for authors (“about 200 words maximum”).
Line 14 Chickpea accessions originated from Azerbaijan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Syria (ICARDA)
Türkiye – is the name of the country in Turkish language, but the text is written in English, in which it is Turkey (e.g. as Germany)
As it is written here, one would think that all Syrian samples come from the IGARDA collection, but those both from Syria (from KRIAPG?) and from ICARDA are listed in Table 1. I think it is worth to tell on this more clearly.
ICARDA – abbreviations should be defined the first time they appear (as well as ICRISAT- Line 395)
Line 26 (and 266) from the former Soviet Union
I think that it is worth specifying that former Soviet Union included Azerbaijan, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Introduction
Line 73 As a result, three new chickpea cvs. Abad, Malhotra, and Khalima were released in Uzbekistan suitable for planting in autumn
As a result, three new chickpea cvs. Abad, Malhotra, and Khalima suitable for planting in autumn were released in Uzbekistan
Line 76 However, it is important to note that autumn-sown chickpea yield can be comparable with spring-sown type with the development of cold-tolerant chickpea cultivars with increased productivity
The “however” introduces a contrast or opposition between two independent clauses. It is not clear which opposition the authors meant here.
Line 113 Moldova, Russia, Türkiye Ukraine– different fonts, and a comma is absent after Türkiye
Material and methods
It is interesting were the climatic conditions of both of these years similar or different?
Line 125 “60 seeds in each plot, with three replicates”
60 seeds of each accession? What does mean replicate here? How many plants were totally grown for each accession?
Line 144 Briefly, 200 mg of leaf tissue was ground
How many plants were taken for an analysis of each accession?
Results
Line 219 In total, 51 alleles were revealed among all SSR markers used
The number of alleles for TA71 differs in two tables. It is 8 in Table 3 and 7 in the table 4, so the resulting sum is 52 in Table 3.
Discussion
Interestingly, of the 8 alleles of the TA46 marker, only one (162 bp) was associated with traits, and with three at once. Do the authors have any hypothesis about the reason for this?
I have no corrections to illustrations and references, they are made well.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageEnglish language is good.
Author Response
Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files
Responses to Reviewer 1
Comment 1: The word limit is 200 for the abstract.
Response: We made our Abstract shorter, from 300 to 224 words.
Comment 2: Line 14. Chickpea accessions originated from Azerbaijan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Syria (ICARDA). Türkiye – is the name of the country in Turkish language, but the text is written in English, in which it is Turkey (e.g. as Germany).
Response: Turkey officially changed name at UN to Türkiye: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/03/turkey-changes-name-to-turkiye-as-other-name-is-for-the-birds. However, if this is important for the Reviewer, the name of country can be changed for Turkey, as suggested.
Comment 3: As it is written here, one would think that all Syrian samples come from the IGARDA collection, but those both from Syria (from KRIAPG?) and from ICARDA are listed in Table 1. I think it is worth to tell on this more clearly.
Response: We agree with this comment. The following names were changed in the manuscript as follows. L15-16: ‘Chickpea accessions originated from Azerbaijan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Türkiye, Ukraine, Syria, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)’.
Comment 4: ICARDA – abbreviations should be defined the first time they appear (as well as ICRISAT - Line 395).
Response: We agree with this comment and defined the first time L16, L111, and L396-397 (ICARDA and ICRISAT), as suggested.
Comment 5: Line 26 (and 266). ‘from the former Soviet Union’. I think that it is worth specifying that former Soviet Union included Azerbaijan, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Response: We deleted this fragment in the Abstract and we modified it accordingly in further text of the manuscript (L424-425).
Comment 6 Line 73. ‘As a result, three new chickpea cvs. Abad, Malhotra, and Khalima were released in Uzbekistan suitable for planting in autumn’.
Response: If this sentence will be better with this modification, we are happy with this (L69-70).
Comment 7: Line 76. ‘However, it is important to note that autumn-sown chickpea yield can be comparable with spring-sown type with the development of cold-tolerant chickpea cultivars with increased productivity’. The “however” introduces a contrast or opposition between two independent clauses. It is not clear which opposition the authors meant here.
Response: We agree with the Reviewer and the word ‘However’ has been deleted (L72).
Comment 8: Line 113. Moldova, Russia, Türkiye, Ukraine– different fonts, and a comma is absent after Türkiye.
Response: The corrections are made accordingly (L109-111).
Comment 9: It is interesting were the climatic conditions of both of these years similar or different?
Response: We inserted a sentence about climate differences in 2016 and 2017 growing seasons (L119-121).
Comment 10: Line 125. “60 seeds in each plot, with three replicates”. 60 seeds of each accession? What does mean replicate here? How many plants were totally grown for each accession?
Response: We modified this sentence as suggested (L125-127): ‘60 seeds for each accession in each plot were sown in a completely randomized block design with three replicates, with 180 grown plants for each accession in total’.
Comment 11: Line 144. ‘Briefly, 200 mg of leaf tissue was ground’. How many plants were taken for an analysis of each accession?
Response: Five plants were used. This sentence was modified accordingly (L146): ‘Briefly, 200 mg of leaf tissue collected from five plants for each accession was ground’.
Comment 12: Line 219. ‘In total, 51 alleles were revealed among all SSR markers used’. The number of alleles for TA71 differs in two tables. It is 8 in Table 3 and 7 in the table 4, so the resulting sum is 52 in Table 3.
Response: Thank you for pointing this mistake out. Actually, it is a technical error again in Table 3; the amplicon size of 113 for TA71 was mentioned incorrectly. All PCR products obtained with SSR markers are given in Table S1, where one can find that there are 7 alleles for TA71. Therefore, we deleted the band size of 113 for TA71 in Table 3, and it makes correct number for 51 alleles in Table 3.
Comment 13: Interestingly, of the 8 alleles of the TA46 marker, only one (162 bp) was associated with traits, and with three at once. Do the authors have any hypothesis about the reason for this?
Response: The answer is present in the Discussion section that TA46 is surrounded by several genes related to important agronomic traits. It is stated in L501-503: “Additionally, SSR marker TA46 was very effective and associated with many other important agronomic traits such as HSW, NPP, relative yield, seed number per plant, harvest index and Fusarium wilt incidence [31,72]”.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsInteresting work, in a species useful in human nutrition and frendly for the environment. It is particularly interesting to have found markers associated with traits related to seed production and therefore usable in future chickpea breeding programs. Suggest expanding the introduction as indicated in the notes.
Notes:
Introduction
- Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)
- family Fabaceae,
- tribe Cicerae.
- self-pollinated,
- diploid,
- annual grain legume crop.
- global production of chickpea is.....
- Add also the area of origin and domestication.......
Materials and methods
What morphologica differences are there between the Kabuli ecotype and Desi ecotypes?
Author Response
Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.
Responses to Reviewer 2
Interesting work, in a species useful in human nutrition and frendly for the environment. It is particularly interesting to have found markers associated with traits related to seed production and therefore usable in future chickpea breeding programs.
Comment 1: Suggest expanding the introduction as indicated in the notes.
Introduction
- Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)
- family Fabaceae,
- tribe Cicerae.
- self-pollinated,
- diploid,
- annual grain legume crop.
- global production of chickpea is.....
- Add also the area of origin and domestication.......]
Response: Following suggestion of the Reviewer, we expanded the introduction accordingly in L33-36, and inserted a sentence ‘In 2018, 17.2 million tons of chickpeas were produced from 17.8 million hectares of land throughout the world [1]’ with following changes in reference numbering.
Comment 2: What morphological differences are there between the Kabuli ecotype and Desi ecotypes?
Response: The answer is in Lines 114-116 with additional information: ‘All studied chickpea accessions were Kabuli ecotype with bigger and light-color seeds, and only one exception of cv. Malhotra, Desi ecotype, with smaller and darker-color seeds’.
