Effect of High Tunnel Coverings on Antioxidants of Breaker and Light Red Tomatoes at Harvest and during Ripening
, Channa B. Rajashekar 2, Brianna Cunningham 3, Qing Kang 3, Weiqun Wang 4, Myungjin Lee 2, Cary L. Rivard 5 and Eleni D. Pliakoni 1,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Round 1: The paper from Gude et al. is interesting however additional data should be inserted before the paper can be published.
Indeed the authors only concentrated on AsA and phenolic compounds, however additional data need to be inserted:
What is the effect of high tunnel coverings on plant growth and final yield? And the effect on ripening? Data on lycopene and carotenoid content should be also included. Also, why authors did not evaluate total antioxidant activity?
Minor points:
The literature used and the papers cited are too old. Additional papers from the past 5 years should be used and paper that are too old (before 2000) should be eliminated if they are not absolutely necessary
The number of plants used for each trials should be inserted. On how many plants experiments were performed? The fruit analysed were collected from the same plants? if not, from how many? These points should be specified
Round2: The authors have answered all the questions raised previously, therefore the paper can be now accepted
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Round 1:
The paper of Gule et al. study the effects of the covering material of tunnels on the critical aspects of the nutritional value of tomato fruits. The topic is appropriate for the Agronomy journal. In my opinion, for the acceptance of this paper, however, a major revision is required. Specific points for improvement follows.
Abstract: The postharvest treatments are not described in the abstract, the authors should re-design it in order quickly provide the description of their work.
Line 23: please revise the "at various maturity stages" as it can be confusing.
Line 32: please revise "we saw" to we conclude
Line 33: please change to altered the phenolic compound and AsA accumulation profiles
Line 41: to reduce the effect of high temperatures and of direct sunlight (tomato fruits are prone to sunburns).
Line 43: Please revise to Tomato fruit biomass
Line 47: Antioxidant compound profiles
Line 166: please revise the argument as I feel that the chosen RH and Temperature do not always correlate with the ambient storage conditions.
Discussion
Please evaluate and discuss the findings of Petropoulos et al (2019) J Sci Food Agric as they have conducted a similar experiment to this one.
Data about the light intensity inside the tunnels at a given time will greatly benefit the discussion of this manuscript as the actual shading provided by the materials and the actual radiation reaching the plants will be available.
Line 342: active light intensity
Line 349: fruits were at the mature green stage
Line: 348: The authors did not provide a physiological explanation for this phenomenon, please evaluate my paper (Tsaniklidis et al. 2014 Plant plysiology and biochemistry) about the redox state of AsA during the posthavest life of cherry tomato fruits.
Line 365: Please revise the argument, and take in consideration of the article of Li et al (Scientific reports 8:6097/2018). Such a mechanism functions in tomato.
Line 407: Apart from the ROS production, the AsA redox state governs the accumulation of the metabolite in the plant organs. During prolonged storage the degradation of the metabolite is faster than its production inside the fruits.
Finally, I feel that the authors should provide their evaluation of the effect of the covering materials on the nutritional value of the fruits.
Round 2:The authors improved significantly the paper with the addition of the new data, thus I propose the acceptance of the paper.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper from Gude et al. is interesting however additional data should be inserted before the paper can be published.
Indeed the authors only concentrated on AsA and phenolic compounds, however additional data need to be inserted:
What is the effect of high tunnel coverings on plant growth and final yield? And the effect on ripening? Data on lycopene and carotenoid content should be also included. Also, why authors did not evaluate total antioxidant activity?
Minor points:
The literature used and the papers cited are too old. Additional papers from the past 5 years should be used and paper that are too old (before 2000) should be eliminated if they are not absolutely necessary
The number of plants used for each trials should be inserted. On how many plants experiments were performed? The fruit analysed were collected from the same plants? if not, from how many? These points should be specified
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper of Gule et al. study the effects of the covering material of tunnels on the critical aspects of the nutritional value of tomato fruits. The topic is appropriate for the Agronomy journal. In my opinion, for the acceptance of this paper, however, a major revision is required. Specific points for improvement follows.
Abstract: The postharvest treatments are not described in the abstract, the authors should re-design it in order quickly provide the description of their work.
Line 23: please revise the "at various maturity stages" as it can be confusing.
Line 32: please revise "we saw" to we conclude
Line 33: please change to altered the phenolic compound and AsA accumulation profiles
Line 41: to reduce the effect of high temperatures and of direct sunlight (tomato fruits are prone to sunburns).
Line 43: Please revise to Tomato fruit biomass
Line 47: Antioxidant compound profiles
Line 166: please revise the argument as I feel that the chosen RH and Temperature do not always correlate with the ambient storage conditions.
Discussion
Please evaluate and discuss the findings of Petropoulos et al (2019) J Sci Food Agric as they have conducted a similar experiment to this one.
Data about the light intensity inside the tunnels at a given time will greatly benefit the discussion of this manuscript as the actual shading provided by the materials and the actual radiation reaching the plants will be available.
Line 342: active light intensity
Line 349: fruits were at the mature green stage
Line: 348: The authors did not provide a physiological explanation for this phenomenon, please evaluate my paper (Tsaniklidis et al. 2014 Plant plysiology and biochemistry) about the redox state of AsA during the posthavest life of cherry tomato fruits.
Line 365: Please revise the argument, and take in consideration of the article of Li et al (Scientific reports 8:6097/2018). Such a mechanism functions in tomato.
Line 407: Apart from the ROS production, the AsA redox state governs the accumulation of the metabolite in the plant organs. During prolonged storage the degradation of the metabolite is faster than its production inside the fruits.
Finally, I feel that the authors should provide their evaluation of the effect of the covering materials on the nutritional value of the fruits.
