Physiochemical Changes of European Pear cv. Conference and Asian Pear cv. Yali during Cold Storage
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Manuscript, horticulturae-21700117, reports the “Physiochemical changes of European pear cv. Conference and Asian pear cv. Yali during cold storage”.
This is an interesting research topic, and an acceptable work has been done. The writing should be more careful and rigorous, also English should be improved. The manuscript is well documented with valid bibliographical references. However, some critical points must be addressed and are pointed out in the manuscript.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
On behalf of the co-authors, I would like to thank you for all the comments and list of corrections that helped to improve the quality of our manuscript. The detailed responses to the raised issues are provided in this attached file. All the answers are written in red font to make them easier to find.
Point 1: Line 29: Add a reference, please.
Response 1: Thank you for your comment, we have added the missing reference on the line 30 now: They require exposure to ethylene [2] and/or a period of chilling for ripening [3].
Point 2: Line 93: storage or commercialization
Response 2: We have changed the word storage to a more appropriate one, according to the recommendation: commercialization.
Line 94: Low-temperature storage technology is not only the simplest and most efficient method, but also the most widely used method in fruit commercialization.
Point 3: Line 124: How many fruit are used in homogenization? Total fruit or part of it?
Response 3: Five whole fruits were used for homogenization in three repetitions. The sentence has been edited:
Line 128: The juice for subsequent analysis of soluble solids, titratable acidity, antioxidant activity, saccharides and organic acids content was created by homogenizing 5 whole fruits in three repetitions (n = 3), which were always obtained from each batch.
Point 4: Line 134: The standard probe to measure pears firmness is 8 mm and 7 mm depth, and the firmness should be expressed in N.
Response 4: Since we used a standard probe with a diameter of 11 mm, we express the measured values in the MPa, which also take into account the area of the probe during the calculation.
Point 5: Line 138-141: This paragraph is repeated. Write off
Response 5: Thank you for the notice, we have removed the repetitive paragraph.
Point 6: Line 165: It´s not always at 20 °C when it was measured in the fruits that were in cold storage it was at 1 °C, right? Improve the description of what was done, please.
Response 6: Thank you for the notice. We have changed the description of the ethylene and CO2 measurement experiment. When we measured fruits that were in cold storage, they were placed in the flask at 1 °C for 1 hour before measurement. Line number 166 after correction:
The flask was hermetically sealed and stored at 1 °C for 1 hour before measurement in the fruits that were in cold storage and at 20 ° C for the fruits from shelf life.
Point 7: Figure 1: No significant analysis was provided for all the Figures since the authors stated that „Tukey´s HSD test at P ≤ 0.05 was performer for separation of means in the 2.7 Statistical analysis.
Response 7: Parameters in the Table 1 were evaluated using the Tukey´s HSD test. For ethylene and CO2 formation and firmness, the evaluation was made graphically from statistically processed values by Excel, where means and standard errors were calculated using the Program Statistics version 12.
Point 8: Line 318: Please, the way of writing should be standardized throughout the manuscript, in the M&M the acronym SSC was used.
Response 8: Thank you for your suggestion, we have unified the use of abbreviations throughout the text.
Lines 320 in the revised manuscript: The acronym TSS was replaced by the acronym SSC, which we used in the chapter 2 Materials and Methods.
Point 9: Lines 394, 399: Rewrite: Varieties of European pear (Pyrus communis L) represented by ‘Conference’ and Asian ‘Yali’ have the same respiration rate at 1 °C and a higher respiration rate at 20 °C. ‘Yali’ is generally a softer variety than ‘Conference’ (0.40 to 0.59 MPa) but does not soften throughout the storage period (up to day 67) when stored at 20 °C.
Response 9: Thank you for your suggestion. We rewrote the sentences in Conclusion:
Varieties of European pear (Pyrus communis L) represented by ‘Conference’ and Asian ‘Yali’ have the same respiration rate at 1 °C. When evaluating shelf life, ‘Yali‘ has a lower respiration rate than ‘Conference’. ‘Yali‘ shows minimal softening during 67 days of storage (0.40 to 0.59 MPa), while ‘Conference‘ softened by an average of 74% at shelf life.
Point 10 : Conclusion: Introduce a sentence that summarizes the benefits of the information obtained for the post-harvest management of these pear cultivars.
Response 10: Thank you for the recommendation to introduce the sentence that summarizes the benefits of the information obtained for the post-harvest management of these pear cultivars.
Line 413-420: Asian pear trees are of increasing economic importance in temperate climates. They have great storage potential, as their quality parameters change less during storage than standard European varieties. ‘Yali‘ is less susceptible to the presence of ethylene, although it produces significantly more than the European variety and its response to changes in respiration rate and firmness is lower.
It is therefore not suitable for storage with European pears, which would react strongly to their ethylene production. Research on the use of 1-MCP during postharvest ripening and its effect on ethylene production in Asian pears may be of interest.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The work has small observations:
L 39-RA (relative humidity). For references, the name of the journal should be abbreviated according to the writing guide
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
On behalf of the co-authors, I would like to thank you for the comment and correction that helped to improve the quality of our manuscript. The detailed response to the raised issue is provided in this attached file. The answer is written in red font.
Point 1: L 39-RA (relative humidity). For references, the name of the journal should be abbreviated according to the writing guide
Response 1: Thank you, for your suggestion, we have explained the abbreviation used for the first time in the text. We corrected the sentence on line 40, according to reviewer report:
The regular atmosphere (RA) storage at -1 to 0 °C allows maintaining high quality for up to 4 months without significant fruit quality losses [11,12].
Reviewer 3 Report
Interesting experience with many laboratory measurements of biochemical parameters of pear fruit of two varieties of different origin. In the abstract, provide some results of changes in individual parameters, many of which were measured in the study. Keywords should not repeat with the title. Introduction too extensive.
The methodology often does not provide important details, e.g. where the fruit was collected from, how many trials, how many repetitions each measurement had. In the summary, the results are summarized again, no conclusion is drawn for practice and no further directions of research in this area are given.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
On behalf of the co-authors, I would like to thank you for all the comments and list of corrections that helped to improve the quality of our manuscript. The detailed responses to the raised issues are provided in this attached file. All the answers are written in red font to make them easier to find.
Point 1: Lines 14, 19: Give some values of changes in percentage. Everthing about the results i stoo general.
Response 1: Thank you for your suggestion to add the values to the abstract so that it's not too general. We expressed the change in respiration intensity in percentages and the range of flesh firmness values.
Development of the respiration intensity had a similar course in European and Asian pears. The high values CO2 production at the beginning of storage for the variety ‘Conference‘ (14,08 mg kg-1.h-1) and ‘Yali‘ (23,37 mg kg-1.h-1) were followed by a sharp decline of 80% and 83% at later stages of storage at 1 °C, respectively.
The ‘Yali‘ variety showed negligible changes in soluble solids content and flesh firmness during storage ranging from 0.35 to 0.60 MPa.
Point 2: Keywords: do not repeat the message from the title, expand it with the tested parameters.
Response 2: We have adjusted the keywords as recommended:
Line 24: Keywords: pears, ethylene, respiration rate, firmness, antioxidant capacity, acids, saccharides
Point 3: Lines 41, 59, 106: Explain the abbreviation used for the first time in the text.
Response 3: We have explained the abbreviation used for the first time in the text. We corrected the sentence in which abbreviations were used on lines 40, 54, 95 according to reviewer report:
The regular atmosphere (RA) storage at -1 to 0 °C allows maintaining high quality for up to 4 months without significant fruit quality losses [11,12].
In the investigations, ‘Conference’ pear was very susceptible to low O2 and/or high CO2 partial pressures during a 6-month controlled atmosphere (CA) storage period [6,8].
The analysis according to Łysiak et al. [30], has revealed that it is more economically advantageous to sell pears directly after harvest than after six months of storage.
Point 4: Line 73: lowercase
Response 4: We corrected the lowercase letter in the word „high“ on line 95.
Point 5: Line 104: Provide a number for publication, and also Łysiak et al.
Response 5: Thank you, we provided a number for publication and also Łysiak et al. now on the line 93.
The analysis according to Łysiak et al. [30], has revealed that it is more economically advantageous to sell pears directly after harvest than after six months of storage.
Point 6: Lines 117, 118 and 265: not every time, once is enough
Response 6: Thank you for the notice. We deleted the repeated botanical names of pears.
Point 7: Line 119: entere the coordinates of the location
Response 7: We entered the coordinates of the location:
Line 111: The fruits of the Asian pear cultivar ‘Yali’ and the European pear cultivar ‘Conference’ were produced by 6-year-old trees grown in the orchards of Mendel University located in Lednice, Czech Republic (48.79 °N/ 16.80 °E).
Point 8: Line 120: Too general, from how many places in the orchard, from how many trees in the repetition, from what part of the crown, at what time etc.
Response 8: Thank you, we added the missing information about the harvesting method:
Line 113: Fruits from ten trees from each variety were harvested all at once in the morning hours, and fruits were randomly selected for the experiment.
Point 9: Line 122: as stated only visually
Response 9: Thank you for your comment, the sentence has been edited:
Line 116: Fruits with uniform color, size, and free of visible injury were selected visually for investigation.
Point 10: Line 126: Repetition of the above.
Response 10: We removed the sentence because it was repeated above: Fruit with similar size and without physical injuries or infections were selected.
Point 11: Line 137: as for the other parameters
Response 11: Additional parameters were added, for which the same number of fruits and repetitions applied:
Line 128: The juice for subsequent analysis of soluble solids, titratable acidity, antioxidant activity, saccharides and organic acids content was created by homogenizing 5 whole fruits in three repetitions (n = 3), which were always obtained from each batch.
Point 12: Line 141: How many fruits were measured?
Response 12: Thank you for your question about the missing number of fruits in the color measurement.
Line 134: Changes in the color of pear fruits were monitored in 15 fruits always twice on one fruit by measuring transmittance using a Lovibond RT850i.
Point 13: Line 148: How many times to measure each parameter?
Response 13: Line 142:Each sample was represented by 15 fruits in three repetitions.
Point 14: Line 161: How many times to measure each parameter?
Response 14: Line 150: The contents of selected sugars (sucrose, glucose, fructose) were determined using the commercial kit K-SUFRG (Megazyme, Wicklow, Ireland) at the beginning and at the end of storage (60 days).
Point 15: Line 207: How many samples?
Response 15: We edited the sentence to explain the sample size for the analysis.
Line 190: For both methods, the results were expressed in mmol Trolox equivalent (TEA) per kilogram of fruits, converted to fresh weight. Each sample was repeated three times. . Information about samples for the determination of antioxidant capacity was added in chapter 2. Materials and Methods on line 130.
Point 16: Line 215: as above
Response 16: Contents of organic acids were expressed in mg.kg-1 of fresh pears. Information about samples for the determination of organic acids was added in chapter 2. Materials and Methods on line 130.
Point 17: Conclusions: Indicate the further direction of research in this issue, provide guidance for practice resulting from this research.
Response 17: Thank you for the recommendation to provide quidance for practice resulting from this research and indicate the further direction of research in this issue.
Lines 413-420: Asian pear trees are of increasing economic importance in temperate climates. They have great storage potential, as their quality parameters change less during stor-age than standard European varieties. ‘Yali‘ is less susceptible to the presence of eth-ylene, alhough it produces significantly more than the European variety and its re-sponse to changes in respiration rate and firmness is lower.
It is therefore not suitable for storage with European pears, which would react strongly to their ethylene production. Research on the use of 1-MCP during posthar-vest ripening and its effect on ethylene production in Asian pears may be of interest.
Reviewer 4 Report
Line 19 in the Abstract: what is SSC?
Line 106 – NA storage is unrecognized and hence must be written in full
Lines 112-114: expand this sentence as to what storage conditions were varied and what qualitative parameters were examined.
Lines 120-121: define how many days is commercial maturity for each variety considered in your study.
Line 153: “handheld”?
Line 181: “… of 1 liter volume”
Figures 1, 2 and 3 – the graph for CO2 and ethylene generation as well as flesh firmness for ‘Yali’ does not exactly fall on the 15th, 30th, 45th, 60th day as indicated in your methodology. Why is that?
Line 252: “where an initial rise in CO2 evolution rate” – I do not agree with this statement; should it not be “where an initial high CO2 evolution rate”?
Conclusions is adequate.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
On behalf of the co-authors, I would like to thank you for all the comments and list of corrections that helped to improve the quality of our manuscript. The detailed responses to the raised issues are provided in this attached file. All the answers are written in red font to make them easier to find.
Point 1: Line 19 in the Abstract: what is SSC?
Response 1: Thank you for the warning, we have explained the acronym of SSC and written the full meaning of the acronym on the line 20.
Point 2: Line 106 – NA storage is unrecognized and hence must be written in full
Response 2: The sentence with the abbreviation NA on the line 106 was also modified. After editing on line 94.
Point 3: Lines 112-114: expand this sentence as to what storage conditions were varied and what qualitative parameters were examined.
Response 3: Thank you, we have expanded the sentence to include storage conditions (shelf life in addition to cold storage conditions) and which quality parameters were examined:
Lines 102-106: Emphasis was placed on monitoring the influence of cold storage conditions and shelf life on qualitative parameters in terms of flesh firmness, color, antioxidant capacity, content of saccharides and organic acids, but also, and especially on the physiological processes (ethylene formation and respiration rate) explaining these quality changes.
Point 4: Lines 120-121: define how many days is commercial maturity for each variety considered in your study.
Response 4: Twenty-five kilograms of fruits were harvested at the same stage of ripeness, which physiologically corresponded to just a few days before the onset of the climacteric development stage (lines 111-113).
Point 5: Line 153: “handheld”?
Response 5: Line 144: we have reformulated the sentence with the word "hand". SSC was determined using a digital refractometer PAL-1 (Atago Co., Ltd, Tokyo, Ja-pan), and results were expressed in °Bx.
Point 6: Line 181: “… of 1 liter volume”
Response 6: Thank you for correcting the phrase: ...of volume 1 liter
Line 166: On each sampling date, 5 fruits were weighed and placed in a respiratory flask of 1 liter volume.
Point 7: Figures 1, 2 and 3 – the graph for CO2 and ethylene generation as well as flesh firmness for ‘Yali’ does not exactly fall on the 15th, 30th, 45th, 60th day as indicated in your methodology. Why is that?
Response 7: Thank you for your question. The points have been shifted slightly to avoid overlapping with the points for ‘Conference‘ variety.
Point 8: Line 252: “where an initial rise in CO2 evolution rate” – I do not agree with this statement; should it not be “where an initial high CO2 evolution rate”?
Response 8: Thank you, and based on the recommendation, we are correcting part of the sentence on the line 232:
The rate of respiration in the present study shows a distinctive respiratory climacteric pattern in both varieties of pears, where an initial high CO2 evolution rate during shelf life was followed by a sharp decline at the later stages of storage at 20 °C.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript has been improved. But, should be check verbal time used in all manuscript. For example:
- line 396 "‘Yali‘ has a" should be "‘Yali‘ had a"
- line 401"‘Yali‘ shows" should be "'‘Yali‘ showed"
