PONE-D-23-34671Pyramiding of bacterial blight resistance genes into promising restorer BRRI31R line through marker-assisted backcross breeding and evaluation of agro-morphological and physiochemical characteristics of developed resistant restorer linesPLOS ONE

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PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

The manuscript was well written and interesting. However, there are some minor clarification requirement from the authors.

1. What is the concentration of bacterial cell for inoculation on parent and selected pyramided restorer lines?

2. In Table 2, RP, DP, RC and Sc were mentioned. What are they?

3. The suggestions of the reviewer (2) may be incorporated in the revised manuscript.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

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: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. 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

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. 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

Reviewer #2: 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: I appreciate the author who has taken the effort since It has been a burning issue in rice cultivation at this time since the Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the world's most influential and economically significant crop.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript by Akter and colleagues focuses on the pyramiding of four bacterial blight resistance genes in the background of BRRI31R through marker-assisted backcross breeding. The manuscript is well written, and the figures are well presented. While the topic will have broad readers, are few minor revisions are required. As such, I would recommend important changes to be taken into account in the manuscript before acceptance for publication.

Comments/queries that need to be addressed:

1. The author claims that restorer line BRRI31R carries the Xa4 gene in the background based on the amplification of resistant allele corresponding to donor parent IRBB60 and resistant check IRBB4. In this regard, please consider the following points: (a) Please provide the parentage of BRRI31R if the Xa4 has been transferred from the IRBB4. (b) Kindly mention if the marker is functional and also provide the information on the response of IRBB4.

2. The author tested 200 BC3F2 with linked markers and identified homozygous plants with single, double, and triple gene combinations. Please mention if the author has checked the effectiveness and spectrum of various resistance gene combinations against five Xoo races of Bangladesh to ensure its effectiveness/durability without having negative impacts on other agronomic traits.

3. It is important to mention the initial population size for BC3F2. The 200 is a very small population to select the combination of four genes. The chances of escape of the gene are high in this population. Additionally, the selection of a superior, high-yielding, early maturing line in such a small is difficult.

4. The pollen fertility of IR79156A x BRRI31R-MASP2 and IR79156A x BRRI31R-MASP5 is 91.95 and 93.33, respectively. But why they are not considered for further analysis?

5. Why two pyramiding lines MASP3 and MASP4 are selectively biased for having improved agronomic traits over the other three pyramided lines as evidenced by Table 7 and Table 8? Similarly, for instance, Table 4 shows the mean lesion length of these two lines very similar to the donor over the other three pyramided lines and they carry the pita gene as well.

6. Line 254- A gel photograph…. It seems that the sentence is incomplete. Similarly,

7. The reference Suh et al. 2013 is repeated twice (50 and 51).

8. Check the reference 56 if it is relevant.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Dr. Ayyasami Ramanathan, Professor-Plant Pathology, Tamilnadu Agricultural University, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dr. Kishor Kumar

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Submitted filename: PONE-D-23-34671_reviewer.pdf

Pyramiding of bacterial blight resistance genes into promising restorer BRRI31R line through marker-assisted backcross breeding and evaluation of agro-morphological and physiochemical characteristics of developed resistant restorer lines

PONE-D-23-34671R1

Dear Dr. Latif,

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

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Kind regards,

Umakanta Ngangkham, Ph. D.

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 #2: 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 #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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 #2: Yes

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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 #2: Yes

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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 #2: The authors have properly justified the comments which I have raised. The manuscript is well formatted. Language in the manuscript is well edited. I recommend this manuscript for publication in the PLOS 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 #2: Yes: Dr. Kishor Kumar

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