Promising and Failed Breeding Techniques for Overcoming Sterility and Increasing Seed Set in Bananas (Musa spp.)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors tried a variety of approaches to increase fecundity in bananas. The aim is worthy and the work is informative. The sample size should always be reported, here it is hard to find. For example, the sample sizes for Table 4 should be in the legend if possible. The authors could also provide more background on the mechanisms of sterility in bananas and how the different techniques were expected to address those mechanisms. For example, what happens at the cellular and molecular levels and how the treatments can overcome this.

a type: line 142 "is" -> "in"

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English is fine

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

 

Thank you for reviewing our work. Please find attached the file with responses to your comments.

 

Kind regards!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In general, the article is interesting and touches an important issue in terms of bananas fertility, and its different sections are congruent among them. However, it needs to be improved.

Methods are not clearly explained. It is important to mention the number of plantas/bunches used in each treatment and clarify the use of controls; otherwise, this section is confusing and lacking of the necessary scientific rigor.

In addition, tables and figures need to be explanatory enough to allow the reader to completely understand them, without reading the article or a section of it; it means, tables and figures should be understood by themselves. Hence, they need a short title and an explanatory legend.

All scientific names include the Authority and the family. In the case uf fungi, it can be included the phylum. For updating the scientific names, consult GBIF and Tropicos.

In Results, the pictures need to be also improved. It is almost impossible to see what is inside the jars.

Please, see file attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

 

Thank you for your critical reviewer of our manuscript. I have addressed your concerns, please find the attachment.

 

Warm regards!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The present manuscript entitled as “Promising and failed breeding techniques for overcoming sterility and increasing seed set in bananas (Musa spp.)” is a research article which explored different methods such as early pollination (a day before anthesis), evening pollination, saline treatment, plant growth regulators (PGRs) treatment, and ovule culture as potential techniques of overcoming sterility in bananas.

The result showed that early and evening pollinations did not increase seed set because of immature flowers and a mismatch of male and female flower opening respectively (t- prob. = 0.735 and 0.884). Saline treatment of bunches before pollination and ovule culture could not also overcome pollination barriers. Auxin antagonists (TIBA and salicylic acid) had some seed set increases though they were not statistically significant (t-prob. = 0.123 and 0.164 respectively). Use of auxin antagonists shows a great potential of overcoming pollination barriers in bananas. However, application rates and time of application have to be optimized and used holistically with other promising techniques such as use of PGM.

The research is quite interesting and it is useful to increase the Bana production but I have major concerns that authors need to address and after that the manuscript can be considered for publication.

Abstract

Line 12-13 “Most banana improvement programs have narrowed down to using a sub-set of edible landraces for sexual hybridization as the majority are female sterile”. Please revise this sentence and it can be “Most banana improvement programs have been narrowed down due to using a sub-set of edible landraces for sexual hybridization as the majority of the plants are female sterile”.

 

Line 13-14 “This is as a result of an array of factors that work in tandem to result in sterility”. Please rewrite this sentence. It can be

“This is due to the result of an array of factors that work in tandem and it leads into sterility”.

Line 18 “techniques of overcoming sterility in bananas”.

Here of should be replaced by for.

Line 20 “Saline treatment of bunches before”

What is mean by Saline treatment of bunches, please explain here and write this sentence in more clear way.

Line 21-22 “Auxin antagonists (TIBA and salicylic acid) had some seed set increases though they were not statistically significant (t-prob. = 0.123 and 0.164 respectively)”.

This sentence is grammatically wrong please rewrite it.

Line 23-25 “However, application rates and time of application have to be optimized and used holistically with other promising techniques such as use of PGM”.

This is the last sentence of the abstract and it needs to be rewrite again. The authors should provide more detail here. Please also correct the grammar as it is grammatically wrong.

2. Materials and Methods

 

2.1 Experimental site and banana genotypes used

 

Please revise the heading 2.1.

 

Line 74 “Banana genotypes used included”

Please re write as “Banana genotypes which are used includes”

 

2.2 Early and evening pollination techniques

 

Line 87-88 “The control pollination technique was hand pollination as described by Vuylsteke et al. (1997) [25] on plantain”.

 

 

Please rewrite it as “The control pollination technique was hand pollination as described by Vuylsteke et al. (1997) [25] and applied on plantain”.

 

 

2.3 Hormonal treatment

 

Line 102-104 “Mshale’, ‘Mlelembo’, ‘Enzirabahima’, ‘Nakitembe’, and ‘Mbwazirume’ were pollen 102 was hand pollinated with ‘Calcutta 4’ pollination as described by Vuylsteke et al. (1997) 103 [25] and stigma receptivity was enhanced [9]”.

 

This sentence is grammatically wrong. Please rewrite it.

 

Line 104-107. “PGRs were then sprayed on the bunch just a day after pollinating the last female hand. For salicylic acid, injections into the pseudo stem were experimented just after pollination. Different PGRs and/or concentration, some bunches of each of the selected cultivar were treated (Table 1)”.

 

Please correct the grammar and rewrite them again. The scientific description is not clear and English is wrong throughout these sentences.

 

 

Line 114 “given time to dry before pollination with PGM [28, 9]”.

What you mean by this? Please correct and explain in more detail.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Abstract

Line 12-13 “Most banana improvement programs have narrowed down to using a sub-set of edible landraces for sexual hybridization as the majority are female sterile”. Please revise this sentence and it can be “Most banana improvement programs have been narrowed down due to using a sub-set of edible landraces for sexual hybridization as the majority of the plants are female sterile”.

 

Line 13-14 “This is as a result of an array of factors that work in tandem to result in sterility”. Please rewrite this sentence. It can be

“This is due to the result of an array of factors that work in tandem and it leads into sterility”.

Line 18 “techniques of overcoming sterility in bananas”.

Here of should be replaced by for.

Line 20 “Saline treatment of bunches before”

What is mean by Saline treatment of bunches, please explain here and write this sentence in more clear way.

Line 21-22 “Auxin antagonists (TIBA and salicylic acid) had some seed set increases though they were not statistically significant (t-prob. = 0.123 and 0.164 respectively)”.

This sentence is grammatically wrong please rewrite it.

Line 23-25 “However, application rates and time of application have to be optimized and used holistically with other promising techniques such as use of PGM”.

This is the last sentence of the abstract and it needs to be rewrite again. The authors should provide more detail here. Please also correct the grammar as it is grammatically wrong.

2. Materials and Methods

 

2.1 Experimental site and banana genotypes used

 

Please revise the heading 2.1.

 

Line 74 “Banana genotypes used included”

Please re write as “Banana genotypes which are used includes”

 

2.2 Early and evening pollination techniques

 

Line 87-88 “The control pollination technique was hand pollination as described by Vuylsteke et al. (1997) [25] on plantain”.

 

 

Please rewrite it as “The control pollination technique was hand pollination as described by Vuylsteke et al. (1997) [25] and applied on plantain”.

 

 

2.3 Hormonal treatment

 

Line 102-104 “Mshale’, ‘Mlelembo’, ‘Enzirabahima’, ‘Nakitembe’, and ‘Mbwazirume’ were pollen 102 was hand pollinated with ‘Calcutta 4’ pollination as described by Vuylsteke et al. (1997) 103 [25] and stigma receptivity was enhanced [9]”.

 

This sentence is grammatically wrong. Please rewrite it.

 

Line 104-107. “PGRs were then sprayed on the bunch just a day after pollinating the last female hand. For salicylic acid, injections into the pseudo stem were experimented just after pollination. Different PGRs and/or concentration, some bunches of each of the selected cultivar were treated (Table 1)”.

 

Please correct the grammar and rewrite them again. The scientific description is not clear and English is wrong throughout these sentences.

 

 

Line 114 “given time to dry before pollination with PGM [28, 9]”.

What you mean by this? Please correct and explain in more detail.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

 

Thank your for your input towards publication of our work. Please find attached the responses to your concerns.

 

Regards!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

the work can be published in its current form.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

 

Thank you for reviewing our work.

 

Regards!

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Authors have included all the suggestions made in the first version, improving the scientific quality of the article.

Only two or three small corrections in page 1 (please, see file attached).

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

“The present manuscript entitled as “Promising and failed breeding techniques for overcoming sterility and increasing seed set in bananas (Musa spp.)” is a research article which explored different methods such as early pollination (a day before anthesis), evening pollination, saline treatment, plant growth regulators (PGRs) treatment, and ovule culture as potential techniques of overcoming sterility in bananas.

The result showed that early and evening pollinations did not increase seed set because of immature flowers and a mismatch of male and female flower opening respectively (t- prob. = 0.735 and 0.884). Saline treatment of bunches before pollination and ovule culture could not also overcome pollination barriers. Auxin antagonists (TIBA and salicylic acid) had some seed set increases though they were not statistically significant (t-prob. = 0.123 and 0.164 respectively). Use of auxin antagonists shows a great potential of overcoming pollination barriers in bananas. However, application rates and time of application have to be optimized and used holistically with other promising techniques such as use of PGM.

The research is quite interesting and it is useful to increase the Bana production.

The authors have revised the comments and the manuscript can be accepted for publication.