PONE-D-19-29210

Assessment of the elite accessions of bael [Aegle marmelos (L.) Corr.] in Sri Lanka based on morphometric, organoleptic, and elemental properties of the fruits and phylogenetic relationships

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Sooriyapathirana,

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

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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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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

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

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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: In my opinion, bael is an important plant, but not characterized scientifically. So, this paper is important. However, I have several concerns before publication.

Major concerns

1. The description of bael may be incorrect. As I live in Japan, I am not familiar with this plant. But I found this plant in southeast Asian countries such as Thailand. The description in Wikipedia supports my observation. Although the tree is sacred by Hindus, I found these plants in some Buddhist temples in Bhutan and Thailand. So, please gather the detailed information on this plant and reflect them on the paper.

2. In recent years, the phylogenetic study of Aurantioideae has advanced. Mr. Ted Cole and Dr. Milton Groppo summarized the current progress. So, search the website using the term "Rutaceae Phylogeny Poster." Analysis of the papers cited in the poster is important. The authors included Aeglopsis in the current phylogenetic analysis but did not include Afraegle, an African plant. Afraegle is more genetically similar to Aegle. The divergent time between these two may be similar to that of multiple species of Citrus (probably 10MYA or below). It may be similar to the divergent time of Indian bael and Sri Lankan bael. So, using the available data, please compare the Aegle sequences with Afraegle sequences. Additional experiment is not required.

3. The authors concluded that the Indian plant and Sri Lankan plant split 8.52 MYA. I agree with the result of this calculation, but disagree with the authors' suggestion "bael got introduced from India to Sri Lanka 8.52 MYA in the Pliocene epoch." The genetic diversity of bael in India may be wide, and some of the Indian plants may be genetically similar to Sri Lankan plants. Because the data of the Indian plant in this paper is from only one plant, the authors did not exclude this possibility.

Minor concerns

1. Please show the contribution ratios in every figure for PCA.

2. S1 Fig. Fragment lengths of PCR products are different between positive control and your samples. Why? Information on the DNA marker is absent.

3. Accession numbers of the sequence data are absent.

4. Line 170: "Takara" is "Takara Bio."

5. PCA (Fig.5): PC3 or above may contain important information. So, as the supplementary figure, please make a figure containing additional components.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Yukio Nagano

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Assessment of the elite accessions of bael [Aegle marmelos (L.) Corr.] in Sri Lanka based on morphometric, organoleptic, and elemental properties of the fruits and phylogenetic relationships

PONE-D-19-29210R1

Dear Dr. Sooriyapathirana,

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.

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With kind regards,

Zhenhai Han, PhD

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: (No Response)

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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: (No Response)

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

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

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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: (No Response)

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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: (No Response)

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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: (No Response)

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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: Yes: Yukio Nagano