QTL Analysis of Morpho-Agronomic Traits in Garden Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this manuscript, the authors performed QTL analysis and identified some genomic regions related to morpho-agronomic traits in asparagus. I think that this manuscript includes enough new findings and their results are interesting for the readers of Horticulturae. But I have some comments for this manuscript. 

 

Major comments

 

QTL around sex locus:

If they cultivated asparagus population in open field, female plants had many fruits but male plants did not. Since female plants spend a lot of energy to set the fruits, this might affect the spear production and growth of the plants, etc. Although the authors found 5 QTLs around sex locus on chromosome 1, but I am wondering that bearing fruits on female plants affect the agronomic traits related to these QTLs. The authors should discuss about this problem. 

 

 

Minor comments

 

L.29: The Asparagus genus -> The genus Asparagus

(Asparagus should be italicized.) 

 

L.38: the crop -> garden asparagus

 

L.44: The gene names should be italicized.

 

L.89, 194, 200,…: F1 -> “1” is subscript.

 

L.407: FAR1 -> not italicized, because FAR1 here means FAR1 protein, I think.

Author Response

Please, see attached file containing the response to Reviewers. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript deals with a QTL study and candidate genes approach for morpho-agronomic traits in Asparagus officinalis.

The topic is of great interest and original, even if the approch is not new.

The study in well stuctured and almost goodly performed. The used methods are sound, the studied effectives are sufficient.

The topic of the manuscript meets the expectations of Horticulturae.

Nevertheless, there are some concerns that should be addressed in the manuscript

1-the weather conditions are not displayed and are necessary for the discussion of the results and the strength of QTL observed for quantitative traits measured in this study

2-the phenological traits influence the development of the plants. Did the authors evaluate the statistical weight of the phenological traits in the expression of the quantitative traits measured? I mean if there any correlation between agronomic traits and phenology (this is the case according table 2, therefore, the phenology plays a role in the observed results (both agronomic and QTL detected). In this case, statistical analyses should be redone by considering phenology as covariate and by generating adjusted means which could be used for QTL detection.

Author Response

Please, see attached file containing the response to reviewers. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Authors have addressed all concerns in this manuscript. This version can be accepted.