PONE-D-20-03425

Phenotypic effects of the U-genome variation in nascent synthetic hexaploids derived from interspecific crosses between durum wheat and its diploid relative Aegilops umbellulata

PLOS ONE

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The manuscript by Okada et al. 2020 describes the phenotypic variation observed in newly generated hexaploid lines developed from tetraploid durum wheat and diploid Aegilops umbellulata, a wild relative of the ancestral wheat genomes. The authors used the durum line Langdon for the AABB genomes and 26 accessions from 5 different countries as sources for the UU genome. GISH and U-genome specific markers were used to confirm the presence of the U-genome chromosomes in each of the 26 newly developed hexaploids.

Overall the manuscript is well written with the exception of a few lines. Technically, the experiment design and analysis are sound as described. This study and the germplasm developed for it will likely be valuable for the wheat breeding and research community. Minor comments and concerns are listed below.

The resolution on several of the figures is low, this needs to be improved for them to be of value. In particular, Figures 1 , 5, 6, and 8 need work. Additionally, the symbols in the principal component plots (Figure 9) are difficult to see and need to be enlarged.

I believe it is PLOS one policy to have abbreviations defined when they first appear in text. Considering the large number of abbreviations in this study, perhaps the supplementary table with all abbreviations could be placed in the materials and methods.

p. 5, line 107: It is unclear to me what “representative” means here. Please elaborate on the criteria used to select the synthetic AABBDD hexaploid lines.

p. 7, line 164: The word “repeatedly” can be removed here since it is implied if the same phenotypic traits were measured in both growing seasons.

p. 8, lines 165-167: This would read better if you discussed the number of plants per line first, then the number of plants per pot.

p. 8, line 173: The “seed related” traits measured using SmartGrain software should be listed here.

p. 11, line 243: Can an explanation for no significant correlation for plant height between seasons be provided. In my experience this is an unusual result for wheat.

p. 16, line 362: “data-based” should probably be “data-base”.

p. 17, line 385: “mask” would be a clearer word than “cover”.

p.17, lines 386-387: The sentence “Sometimes strong major genes hide the effects of minor quantitative trait loci in regard to morphological phenotypes.” should be supported with citations or removed.

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Reviewer #1: No

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Phenotypic effects of the U-genome variation in nascent synthetic hexaploids derived from interspecific crosses between durum wheat and its diploid relative Aegilops umbellulata

PONE-D-20-03425R1

Dear Dr. Takumi,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you will receive an e-mail containing information on the amendments required prior to publication. When all required modifications have been addressed, you will receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will proceed to our production department and be scheduled for publication.

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With kind regards,

Ajay Kumar

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I would like to thank the authors for addressing all the comments and concerns in the first review. I have no further edits to the manuscript, which in my opinion is well written and provides relevant information on a valuable resource for wheat researchers, pathologists, and breeders. The time and effort you put into this manuscript are appreciated, the review process has been a pleasant one.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No