Heterosis and Combining Ability for Fruit Yield, Sweetness, β-Carotene, Ascorbic Acid, Firmness and Fusarium Wilt Resistance in Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) Involving Genetic Male Sterile Lines

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The current article entitled “Heterosis and combining ability for fruit yield, sweetness, β-carotene, ascorbic acid, firmness and Fusarium wilt resistance in muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) involving genetic male sterile lines” By Kaur et al., genetically hybrid lines of muskmelon were crossed to evaluate their fruit yield, phytochemicals, and resistance to Fusarium wilt. The whole manuscript needs some grammatical corrections. The findings of this study will help in developing new hybrids capable of producing high fruit yields with enhanced level of phytochemicals and shelf-life. However, some major issues need to be addressed before taking any decision.

1. Introduction
   1. The author should write the full form of abbreviations when used for the first time in the document e.g., general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA).
   2. Please correct grammatical mistakes.
   3. Some sentences are very long with confusing meanings. Please rewrite.

1. Results
2. Fruit quality traits: line 238, “both additive and non-additive effects “controlling” the action of these traits… should be “control”
3. Lines 253, 262, 263, 274: Please correct the spelling mistakes.
4. Line 269: “Among the parental lines….” Consider adding coma after the introductory phrase.
5. Lines 306- 308; Please rewrite. Repetition of words. “symptoms to wilt infestation..” should be “symptoms of wilt infestation”
6. Genetic diversity among ten parental lines and hybrid performance: grammatical mistakes.
7. Discussion
8. Line 374: Please write the author’s name with the reference (46 and 47)
9. Avoid repetition of results in the discussion section.
10. Line 424: “the significant GCA for this traits..” should be “these traits”.
11. Line 473: please write scientific name in Italic.
12. Line 500-502: please rewrite the sentence with clear meaning.
13. Conclusion: line 536, “The promising hybrids also have the ability to provide transgressive…” this sentence is too wordy. Please write direct. “The promising hybrids can provide transgressive..”

General comments:

1. Abbreviate the words at the beginning and then use the abbreviations throughout the manuscript.
2. Use homogenous terms for the explanation, don’t use multiple terms for the same purpose.
3. Avoid formatting mistakes.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Please see the attachment for the point-wise reply to the comments and suggestions given by you.

With best regards

Sat pal Sharma

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The overall aim of the investigation was to determine the significance of general combining abilities and specific combining abilities effects among Indian melons and to compare these with exotic genotypes in order to develop new F1 hybrids capable of producing high fruit yield with enhanced level of phytochemicals and shelf-life. This experiment confirmed that Indian landrace derived genotypes possessing disease resistance can effectively be combined with exotic and/or exotic derived melon genotypes for the development of F1 hybrids with high fruit yield and enhanced fruit quality.

A successful scientific work with high interest for readers.

Remarks, see file

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Sincere thanks for your constructive suggestions.

Please see the attachment for the point-wise reply.

with best regards

Sat Pal Sharma

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript 'Heterosis and combining ability for fruit yield, sweetness, β-car-2 otene, ascorbic acid, firmness and Fusarium wilt resistance in muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) involving genetic male sterile lines' by Kaur et al assessed a diverse panel of Muskmelon in an organized way. The manuscript is well written and can be considered for publication in Horticulturae after minor improvements for the sake of clarity and reproducibility of the work done. 

Introduction: Line 67; it i suggested to include some text to describe heterosis, the term 'heterobeltiosis'/best parent heterosis which is later used in the text. A recent review by Rehman et al (https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12111688) can serve as a good literature source among others extensively available on the subject of Plant Heterosis.

Materials & Methods: In Table 1; the superscript c & d in Botanical group/cluster is not found in the footnotes. Please add if they relate to any information, otherwise the superscripts need to be removed. 

Line 151-153: It is suggested to provide the formula used to calculate PDI.

Results: Figure 2 caption need to be revisited. The color coding / gradient need to be either included in the picture OR explained in the footnotes.

Line 473: Scientific name for the pathogen needs to be Italic. 

Table 7: How the disease was scored, it is suggested to include the scale in materials and methods section. 

 

  

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Please see the attachment for the point-wise reply to your suggestions and comments.

with best regards

Sat Pal Sharma

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors answered all the comments raised by the reviewer. Therefore, the article can be accepted for publication.