Antifreeze Evaluation of Two Dehydrin Proteins from Pseudotsuga menziesii and Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript Antifreeze evaluation of two dehydrin genes from Pseudotsuga menziesii and Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr by Xiao Liu, Qihong Zhao, Mengtian Li, Junkang Zhang, Lei Wang and Jichen Xu contains new data on the role of dehydrins in the cold tolerance of woody plants.
However, this work has a critically short introduction, a short discussion, and considers mostly rather old works. Meanwhile, the topic of dehydrins and their role in the action of stresses on plants is quite promising. Other specific functions are widely covered in the literature, for example, in seeds. I believe that an extension of the review in terms of the complex and ambiguous functions and manifestations of dehydrins, as well as a broader discussion, would be appropriate in this work. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2019&q=Antifreeze+plant+dehydrin&btnG=
There are also smaller remarks. So the black and white design of the drawings, and the lack of statistical parameters p leaves questions with statistics.
The captions for figures 4,5, 6 are incomplete and do not contain complete information. There are also questions about the reading frame and the location of the ATG, which are not marked in any way.
Figures 8 and 9 also have an incomplete description. Of course, experts know the technique, but students or professionals in neighboring areas cannot and should not guess what the gel was and how it was painted.
Signatures should be expanded.
From a methodological point of view, it is not clear why BSA was the control.
The conclusion is very narrow and does not contain future work prospects.
The work can be printed after careful correction.
Author Response
Reviewer #1
The manuscript Antifreeze evaluation of two dehydrin genes from Pseudotsuga menziesii and Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr by Xiao Liu, Qihong Zhao, Mengtian Li, Junkang Zhang, Lei Wang and Jichen Xu contains new data on the role of dehydrins in the cold tolerance of woody plants.
However, this work has a critically short introduction, a short discussion, and considers mostly rather old works. Meanwhile, the topic of dehydrins and their role in the action of stresses on plants is quite promising. Other specific functions are widely covered in the literature, for example, in seeds. I believe that an extension of the review in terms of the complex and ambiguous functions and manifestations of dehydrins, as well as a broader discussion, would be appropriate in this work. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=ru&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2019&q=Antifreeze+plant+dehydrin&btnG=
Reply: We modified the relative sections. Several references were added.
There are also smaller remarks. So the black and white design of the drawings, and the lack of statistical parameters p leaves questions with statistics.
Reply: All were modified
The captions for figures 4,5, 6 are incomplete and do not contain complete information. There are also questions about the reading frame and the location of the ATG, which are not marked in any way.
Reply: All were modified
Figures 8 and 9 also have an incomplete description. Of course, experts know the technique, but students or professionals in neighboring areas cannot and should not guess what the gel was and how it was painted.
Reply: All were modified
Signatures should be expanded.
Reply: All were modified in the text
From a methodological point of view, it is not clear why BSA was the control.
Reply: BSA is a regular protein without antifreeze role. It was then as the control in the antifreeze experiment (see references 21). We mentioned this point in the method section
The conclusion is very narrow and does not contain future work prospects.
Reply: All were modified
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors clones two dehydrin genes from two Pinaceae species. The study the antifreeze properties of the encoded proteins by monitoring their effect of the expression in E. coli. They also study the physical properties of the proteins.
It is a nice little paper. The manuscript is well written.
Yet, the figures are not Publication quality. You need to make publication style figure
very often a good name is missing for the figure.
Line 2 : “proteins” in place of “genes”
line 6: is that correct to use LD; should it not be lethal time 50%?
line 20 : “proteins” in place of “genes”
lines 20/21: “and their antifreeze” : this sentence does not correspond to any results described before in the abstract.
line 2: explain what are “LEADII”
line 62: is the temperature treatment performed on 1-year old plants?
line 110: when tubes were at -5°C or -20°C, there was no shaking, right?
line 112; what do you mean by “growth bacterial plaques”? do you mean Colony Forming unit?
line 155: species should be in italics. What is the statistical test performed? what does “*” mean? Give a name to the figure, like “Assessment of freezing resistance of …”
line 172. Give a name to the figure
I do not get the interest of (A) and (BA? Why not only B?
line 174. Ubiquitin.
line 177: give details
Figure 3 should be after 4. I mean you first describe the sequence and then you do hydrophobicity analysis.
line 199. Give a name to the figure
line 224. name of the figure is not good.
Author Response
The authors clones two dehydrin genes from two Pinaceae species. The study the antifreeze properties of the encoded proteins by monitoring their effect of the expression in E. coli. They also study the physical properties of the proteins.
It is a nice little paper. The manuscript is well written.
Yet, the figures are not Publication quality. You need to make publication style figure
very often a good name is missing for the figure.
Reply: All were modified
Line 2 : “proteins” in place of “genes”
Reply: It was corrected
line 6: is that correct to use LD; should it not be lethal time 50%?
Reply: It was corrected
line 20 : “proteins” in place of “genes”
Reply: It was corrected
lines 20/21: “and their antifreeze” : this sentence does not correspond to any results described before in the abstract.
Reply: A sentence was added.
line 2: explain what are “LEADII”
Reply: It was modified.
line 62: is the temperature treatment performed on 1-year old plants?
Reply: It was modified.
line 110: when tubes were at -5°C or -20°C, there was no shaking, right?
Reply: They were shaken. The sentence was modified
line 112; what do you mean by “growth bacterial plaques”? do you mean Colony Forming unit?
Reply: It was modified.
line 155: species should be in italics. What is the statistical test performed? what does “*” mean? Give a name to the figure, like “Assessment of freezing resistance of …”
Reply: All were modified
line 172. Give a name to the figure. I do not get the interest of (A) and (BA? Why not only B?
Reply: The figure name was modified. The gel figure was deleted
line 174. Ubiquitin.
Reply: It was modified
line 177: give details
Reply: It was modified
Figure 3 should be after 4. I mean you first describe the sequence and then you do hydrophobicity analysis.
Reply: They were changed.
line 199. Give a name to the figure
Reply: It was modified.
line 224. name of the figure is not good.
Reply: It was modified
