Dominated “Inheritance” of Endophytes in Grapevines from Stock Plants via In Vitro-Cultured Plantlets: The Dawn of Plant Endophytic Modifications
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript under revision studied the inheritance of endophytes in grapevine plants from in vitro culture plantlets. The authors develop an interesting experimental design to disclose the evolution of endophytes from the IVCP to the field.
The results obtained were presented in a clear way as well as the methodology, however, concerning M&M section I will suggest the authors to indicate the number of plants analyze in each stage.
In the results section Figure 1 it will be better if the authors include if the differences observed in the abundance of endophytes are statistically significant.
Besides that, my only issue with this manuscript is related to the discussion, when the authors referred that the presence of well-known pathogens could protect the plant. Are the authors sure that the presence of such of fungus like Erysiphe are beneficial to grapevine plants? Or its presence result from the susceptibility of the majority of the plants.
Due to the economical importance of the disease caused by Erysiphe necator I would suggest the authors to provide a deeper discussion of this information.
Author Response
Comments:
The manuscript under revision studied the inheritance of endophytes in grapevine plants from in vitro culture plantlets. The authors develop an interesting experimental design to disclose the evolution of endophytes from the IVCP to the field.
The results obtained were presented in a clear way as well as the methodology, however, concerning M&M section I will suggest the authors to indicate the number of plants analyze in each stage.
Response:
The used numbers of plants in each stage have included in M & M section. Thank you!
Comment: In the results section Figure 1 it will be better if the authors include if the differences observed in the abundance of endophytes are statistically significant.
Response:
The statistic significances of endophytic abundance between vine stages and sections were showed in the Figure 1.
Comments:
Besides that, my only issue with this manuscript is related to the discussion, when the authors referred that the presence of well-known pathogens could protect the plant. Are the authors sure that the presence of such of fungus like Erysiphe are beneficial to grapevine plants? Or its presence result from the susceptibility of the majority of the plants.
Due to the economical importance of the disease caused by Erysiphe necator I would suggest the authors to provide a deeper discussion of this information.
Responses:
We are so sorry that we used a wrong phrase “in addition to” in referring to the powdery mildew causing fungus Erysiphe. In fact, we haven't found any beneficial effects of the fungus Erysiphe on plants. In the present version, we rewrote the sentence as “With one exception of the fungal genus Erysiphe (a disease causing agent for powdery mildew), other fungal genera, such as Gibberella, Acremonium, Aspergillus, Davidiella, Penicillium, and Sarocladium, are reported to have multiple beneficial effects on host plants, …..”.Thank you so much for pointing it out!
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript is well written and presents interesting results. The formatting of the references needs to be improved. Here are some suggestions and minor corrections:
Corrections:
- Format references in accordance to "MDPI Reference List and Citations Style Guide":
Put name of authors in format: "Tadych, M.; Bergen, M.; Dugan, F.M.; White, J.F. (Example)
Journal name in italic. They must be abbreviated;
year in bold;
volume in italic. After volume and issue must be used "colon" and not "comma";
Verify spaces.
Format scientific names in the titles of references in italic
Suggestions:
- Add a reference to "Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA)" and if possible a briefly discussion about this. Suggestion: Sabaghnia et al., 2013 (DOI: 10.2298/GENSR1303691S).
- Add a reference to sentence "However, despite increasing documentation, fundamental knowledge of plant-endo-phyte interactions and the underlying origination, assemblage, and function of endo-phytes remains to be elucidated, before these endophytes can be efficiently applied." Suggestion: Araújo et al., 2020 (DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-819654-0.00006-5)
Minor corrections:
- In Abstract change the abbreviation "horizontally transmitted endophytic (THE)" to "horizontally transmitted endophytic (HTE)";
- Change "genotype--specificity" to "genotype specificity" (second paragraph in Discussion);
- Exclude the word "further", because it is duplicate (Figure S2 in supporting information).
Author Response
Comments:
The manuscript is well written and presents interesting results. The formatting of the references needs to be improved. Here are some suggestions and minor corrections:
Corrections:
- Format references in accordance to "MDPI Reference List and Citations Style Guide":
Put name of authors in format: "Tadych, M.; Bergen, M.; Dugan, F.M.; White, J.F. (Example)
Journal name in italic. They must be abbreviated;
year in bold;
volume in italic. After volume and issue must be used "colon" and not "comma";
Verify spaces.
Format scientific names in the titles of references in italic
Responses: thank you so much for giving the details in correcting the reference format, the references listed in the manuscript have revised accordingly.
Suggestions:
- Add a reference to "Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA)" and if possible a briefly discussion about this. Suggestion: Sabaghnia et al., 2013 (DOI: 10.2298/GENSR1303691S).
- Add a reference to sentence "However, despite increasing documentation, fundamental knowledge of plant-endo-phyte interactions and the underlying origination, assemblage, and function of endo-phytes remains to be elucidated, before these endophytes can be efficiently applied." Suggestion: Araújo et al., 2020 (DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-819654-0.00006-5)
Response：The references have been added accordingly to where it needed. Thank you for these kind suggestions!
Minor corrections:
- In Abstract change the abbreviation "horizontally transmitted endophytic (THE)" to "horizontally transmitted endophytic (HTE)";
- Change "genotype--specificity" to "genotype specificity" (second paragraph in Discussion);
- Exclude the word "further", because it is duplicate (Figure S2 in supporting information).
Response: the points have corrected, thank you!
Reviewer 3 Report
Endophytic microorganisms are currently attracting more and more attention of researchers. Often, endophytic strains have some beneficial properties and can positively influence the development of the host plant, for example, under stress conditions. Of course, endophytes are also pathogenic microorganisms. As a rule, microorganisms from the soil and rhizosphere can lead an endophytic way of life. The authors of the article found that endophytes can be inherited with seedlings and persist in plant tissues at later stages. The hypothesis about the inheritance of endophytes was probably put forward for the first time by the authors of the article. The studies were carried out at the modern level using adequate molecular genetic methods. The opening prospect of carrying out the selection of cultivated plants, taking into account their endophytic microflora, seems to be extremely interesting. In my opinion, the article deserves to be published without significant corrections.
Author Response
Response: The authors are grateful for your kind affirmation and encouragement to the manuscript.
Reviewer 4 Report
Dear Authors,
Your work adds to the knowledge on endophyte "inheritance" through in vitro grown seedlings of grapevine (grapevine IVCPs inheritance, competition- and succession, grapevines dominantly “inherited” IVCP-borne, etc.). The article is well thought out, executed and written, however, in my opinion, some minor modifications, clarifications and changes are required to improve the quality of the manuscript and make it suitable for publication in Horticulturae 2023: the comments are indicated marked at each place in the attached pdf.
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Congratulations for the work done and good luck with your new research in favor of expanding knowledge.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Response: Thank you so much for pointing out all these points, which are helpful to better improve our manuscript. As has commented, a supplementary figure S1 （goods coverage and Chao 1 rarefaction curves）was added to exhibit the sequencing efficiency. Values of some Shannon indexes have included in the result section.
