Effects of Carbon and Nitrogen Fertilisers on Rice Quality of the OsNRT2.3b-Overexpressing Line
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript entitled “Effects of Carbon and Nitrogen Fertilizers on Rice Quality of OsNRT2.3b Gene Over-expression line” investigated the efficacy of C and N fertilizers on quality traits of rice. The theme of the article is interesting and relevant to the journal’s scope. However, I feel numerous flaws in different sections of the ms particularly regarding write up, structure, data presentation and data description, as indicated below in the specific comments. A through revision/justification is required.
In abstract section: Summarize the key results. If possible, add the numerical description of most important results. Some important data should be added to support your results (% increase/decrease). Consider a better organization of info. Even the treatment’s description is not clear.
Avoid general statement, conclude the section with key findings.
Be consistent regarding units. Before use of each abbreviation, it should be previously defined.
-The introduction does not help the reader to understand the aims and objectives of the subsequent sections or of the manuscript as a whole. What's the purpose to measure these parameters?? The question should be answered and reorganized in a logic way for readers who are not experts at this field. Add clear-cut objectives.
- In methodology section, some necessary details of many procedures should be added to this section. Add details on climatic conditions of the experimental site, crop husbandry practices. Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. When the sampling was done for different attributes, how about sample size? How data were analyzed? Mean comparison test? Software used?
Avoid starting a sentence with number/abbreviation.
The methodology section lacks the details on experimental design.
In results, better to add the numeric description of results (% variations) instead of just adding the data values for easy understanding of the readers. Discussion should be merely based on the observed findings. Not just a review of literature. Answer the question posed in introduction and correlate your finding with the existing knowledge.
Conclusion: Just report the key findings… it should not be a general summary of the work.
Language needs substantial improvement. There are several grammatical and typo mistakes throughout the manuscript.
All the tables and figures should be self explanatory. Define all the abbreviations in the table foot note/figure captions.
Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 can be deleted. Provide a cluster heat map with r values, to present the relationship among different attributes.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer，
Thank you very much for your comments.
We have substantially revised our manuscript after reading the comments.
The manuscript entitled “Effects of Carbon and Nitrogen Fertilizers on Rice Quality of OsNRT2.3b Gene Over-expression line” investigated the efficacy of C and N fertilizers on quality traits of rice. The theme of the article is interesting and relevant to the journal’s scope. However, I feel numerous flaws in different sections of the ms particularly regarding write up, structure, data presentation and data description, as indicated below in the specific comments. A through revision/justification is required.
Question: 1. In abstract section: Summarize the key results. If possible, add the numerical description of most important results. Some important data should be added to support your results (% increase/decrease). Consider a better organization of info. Even the treatment’s description is not clear.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments. In abstract, we digitized the increased protein content of O8 compared to WT. And the applied fertilizer content is described, ‘90 kg/ha and 270 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer’ and ‘90 kg/ha and 270 kg/ha carbon fertilizer’. (The updated description show in line 21 to 23)
Question: 2. Avoid general statement, conclude the section with key findings.
Be consistent regarding units. Before use of each abbreviation, it should be previously defined.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments.
(1) We make concluding remarks for each result. “Therefore, O8 has higher nitrogen use efficiency than WT.” (line 194 to 195)
(2) The unit of element content is uniformly converted to g/kg. (line 121)
(3) Before using each abbreviation, we predefine it. Iron (Fe) (line 54), Nitrogen (N) (line 61), copper (Cu) (line 64), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn) and phosphorus (P) (line 65)
Question: 3. The introduction does not help the reader to understand the aims and objectives of the subsequent sections or of the manuscript as a whole. What's the purpose to measure these parameters?? The question should be answered and reorganized in a logic way for readers who are not experts at this field. Add clear-cut objectives.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments. We have added the descriptions of the effect of milling quality and appearance quality on the quality of rice during the production process. (The updated description show in line 47 to 52) These descriptions we add will inform the reader of the importance and purpose of measuring these parameters.
Question: 4. In methodology section, some necessary details of many procedures should be added to this section. Add details on climatic conditions of the experimental site, crop husbandry practices. Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. When the sampling was done for different attributes, how about sample size? How data were analyzed? Mean comparison test? Software used?
Answer: (1) We add details on climatic conditions of the experimental site in line 116 to 118. “The experiment area is in a subtropical monsoon climate zone with an average annual temperature of 14.9 degrees, an average annual drop of water volume is between 840-920 mm and the frost-free period is 212 days a year.”
(2) The plots which plants growth was described line 130 to 132. “The area of each plot is 3.75 m2 (3 m×1.25 m), and the depth of the plot is 1.2 m. Brick concrete is used to isolate the plots to prevent the exchange of water and fertilizer between the plots.”
(3) The sample size is described in line 26 and line 135 and 146. “Each plant was taken for 3 repeat” for nitrogen measured “Each plant was taken for 4 repeat” for rice quality measured.
(4) Statistic analysis is described in detail, lines 157 to 165. “Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS Statistics 19 (Chicago, IL, USA) were used to process and analysis. For the milling quality, appearance quality and cooking and eating quality data of O8 and WT with different fertilization treatments, the data were pooled for calculation of means and standard errors (SE) and analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by the LSD test at p≤0.05 to determine the statistical significance of the differences between O8 and WT. IBM SPSS Statistics 19 was used for ANOVA analysis of variance between treatments. Two-way ANOVA was used for rice materials, different fertilization treatments, and their interaction by Duncan's multiple Test (p≤0.05).”
Question: 5. Avoid starting a sentence with number/abbreviation.
Answer: We have revised the article according to the comments of the reviewers in line 123, line 253 and 362.
Question: 6. The methodology section lacks the details on experimental design.
Answer: We have revised the “Materials and Methods” in line 116 to 118, 130 to 132 and 150 to 154.
Line 113 to 115, ‘The experiment area is in a subtropical monsoon climate zone with an average annual temperature of 14.9 degrees, an average annual drop of water volume is between 840-920 mm, and a frost-free period is 212 days a year.’
Line 126 to 127, ‘The area of each plot is 3.75 m2 (3 m×1.25 m), and the depth of the plot is 1.2 m. Brick concrete is used to isolate the plots to prevent the exchange of water and fertilizer between the plots.’
Line 146 to 150, ‘The protein content in rice was determined by Kjeldahl analyzer (FOSS TECATOR Kjeltec8400).
The harvested rice is threshed with a thresher, and after the seeds are air-dried, hulled with a rice husker (SY88-TH), and then degerminated with a whitening machine (BLH-3120) to become polished rice for calculating roughness and precision’
Question: 7. In results, better to add the numeric description of results (% variations) instead of just adding the data values for easy understanding of the readers. Discussion should be merely based on the observed findings. Not just a review of literature. Answer the question posed in introduction and correlate your finding with the existing knowledge.
Conclusion: Just report the key findings… it should not be a general summary of the work.
Answer: (1) Based on the reviewer's comments, we digitized the nitrogen use efficiency (line 185 to 186, and line 192); milling quality (line 212 to 217); appearance quality (line 245 and 250 to 254); and the cooking and eating quality (line 276 to 280) of O8 and WT in results.
(2) Thank you for your comment. We accept review’s suggestion. We add the results in ‘4.1. Nitrogen effect the formation of rice quality’ and ‘4.3. OsNRT2.3b improve rice quality under different fertilizer treatment conditions’ which belong to discussion section.
Line 364 to 365, ‘Nitrogen efficient materials (O8) are of great significance in improving the quality of rice (Figure 1-4).’
Line 366 to 367, ‘Nitrogen efficient materials (O8) are of great significance in improving the quality of rice (Figure 1-4).’
Line 372 to 374, ‘Overexpression OsNRT2.3b decreased the protein content in rice grains (Figure 4B), and the absorbed nitrogen may be used for the reproductive growth of rice, thereby delaying the growth period (Table 1)’
Line 378 to 382, ‘OsNRT2.3b is similar to the reported OsGS1.1b, a functional transcript of OsGS1.1, an NUE-associated gene [47], in terms of rice quality effect increased NUE and regulated rice quality by affected amylose content of rice (Figure 1; Figure 4A).’
Line 424 to 426, ‘Due to the delay in the reproductive period, overexpression of OsNRT2.3b was reduced the grain filling under different fertilizer treatments in 2019 and 2020 (Figure 3, Table 1). Therefore, the grain quality of O8 is better than WT.’
Question: 8. Language needs substantial improvement. There are several grammatical and typo mistakes throughout the manuscript.
Answer: The language of the manuscript have been improved by a native speaker.
Question: 9. All the tables and figures should be self explanatory. Define all the abbreviations in the table foot note/figure captions.
Answer: Thank you for your comment. In Figure 2-4 we have added a detailed description of the abbreviations.
‘N1: treatment with 90 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer. C1: treatment with 90 kg/ha carbon fertilizer. N1C1-20%: 20% carbon fertilizer instead of nitrogen fertilizer (90 kg/ha). N2: treatment with 270 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer; C2: treatment with 270 kg/ha carbon fertilizer. N2C2-20%: 20% carbon fertilizer instead of nitrogen fertilizer (270 kg/ha).’
Question: 10. Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 can be deleted. Provide a cluster heat map with r values, to present the relationship among different attributes.
Answer: Thanks for your comments, we deleted the Table 3-6, and shown the data in Figure 5 and 6.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper entitled, “Effects of Carbon and Nitrogen Fertilizers on Rice Quality of OsNRT2.3b Gene Over-expression line” is an interesting one and needs considering the following recommendations:
- In the abstract, author must mention about the year when the study was conducted.
- Line no 24 (Page 1): What do you mean by reasonable fertilization ratio? Need quantified data.
- Line no 5 (Page 2): ‘In addition to … field fertilizer control technology’. Need suitable reference as follows: Das, P., Pramanick, B., Goswami, S.B., Maitra, S., Ibrahim, S.M., Laing, A.M. and Hossain, A. 2021. Innovative land arrangement in combination with irrigation methods improves the crop and water productivity of rice (Oryza sativa) grown with okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) under raised and sunken bed systems. Agronomy 11: 2087.
- Add the critical research-gap statement and why this research was conducted just before the concluding paragraph of the Introduction part.
- What are the hypothesis tested in this study?
- Line no. 42 (Page 2): ‘And it has been reported … crop yield and quality’. Need to add suitable recent references as follows: Singh et al. (2021) - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106539
- Line no. 1 – 2 (Page 3): ‘The seedlings of O8 and WT … China.’ When was the experiment conducted?
- Sub-para 2.5 Statistical analysis is not written properly. Need complete revision stating about the ANOVA and statistical-design followed in the study.
- Results and Discussion parts are well written stating the possible scientific background of the results.
- What was the specific recommendation made from this study?
Author Response
Dear Reviewer，
Thank you very much for your comments.
We have substantially revised our manuscript after reading the comments.
Reviewer comments,
The paper entitled,“Effects of Carbon and Nitrogen Fertilizers on Rice Quality of OsNRT2.3b Gene Over-expression line” is an interesting one and needs considering the following recommendations:
Question: 1. In the abstract, author must mention about the year when the study was conducted.
Answer: Thank you very much for your comments. Based on the reviewer's comments, we have revised the ‘Abstract’ to refine the description of the results by 2019 and 2020. (line 20 to 23)
Question: 2. Line no 24 (Page 1): What do you mean by reasonable fertilization ratio? Need quantified data.
Answer: According to the reviewer’s comments, we redefine the article, and we have revised the ‘Abstract’ in line 26 as ‘This research provides high-quality gene, OsNRT2.3b, for breeding high-quality rice, and provides a theoretical basis for obtaining high-quality rice and molecular breeding.’
Question: 3. Line no 5 (Page 2): ‘In addition to … field fertilizer control technology’. Need suitable reference as follows: Das, P., Pramanick, B., Goswami, S.B., Maitra, S., Ibrahim, S.M., Laing, A.M. and Hossain, A. 2021. Innovative land arrangement in combination with irrigation methods improves the crop and water productivity of rice (Oryza sativa) grown with okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) under raised and sunken bed systems. Agronomy 11: 2087.
Answer: Thanks to the reviewer for the reference. We have updated reference in line 59.
Line 491 to 493, ‘14. Das, P., Pramanick, B., Goswami, S.B., Maitra, S., Ibrahim, S.M., Laing, A.M. and Hossain, A. Innovative land arrangement in combination with irrigation methods improves the crop and water productivity of rice (Oryza sativa) grown with okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) under raised and sunken bed systems. Agronomy 2021, 11: 2087.’
Question: 4. Add the critical research-gap statement and why this research was conducted just before the concluding paragraph of the Introduction part.
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. We added the words in line 101 to 102, ‘However, OsNRT2.3b on rice quality under different fertilization conditions has not been reported.’
Question: 5. What are the hypothesis tested in this study?
Answer: In line 156 to 163, we describe the data analysis in detail.
‘Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS Statistics 19 (Chicago, IL, USA) were used to process and analysis. For the milling quality, appearance quality and cooking and eating quality data of O8 and WT with different fertilization treatments, the data were pooled for calculation of means and standard errors (SE) and analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by the LSD test at p≤0.05 to determine the statistical significance of the differences between O8 and WT. IBM SPSS Statistics 19 was used for ANOVA analysis of variance between treatments. Two-way ANOVA was used for rice materials, different fertilization treatments, and their interaction by Duncan's multiple Test (p≤0.05).’
Question: 6. Line no. 42 (Page 2): ‘And it has been reported … crop yield and quality’. Need to add suitable recent references as follows: Singh et al. (2021) - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106539
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. And we add the reference in line 100.
Line 535 to 537, ‘35. Singh, S.P., Mahapatra, B.S., Pramanick, B., Yadav, V.R. Effect of irrigation levels, planting methods and mulching on nutrient uptake, yield, quality, water and fertilizer productivity of field mustard (Brassica rapa L.) under sandy loam soil. Agr. Water Manage. 2021, 244, 106539.’
Question: 7. Line no. 1 – 2 (Page 3): ‘The seedlings of O8 and WT … China.’ When was the experiment conducted?
Answer: We add the years when the experiment conducted in line 114. ‘In 2019 and 2020, the seedlings of O8 and WT were grown in plots at the experiment site of Anhui Science and Technology University, Fengyang, Anhui, China.’
Question: 8. Sub-para 2.5 Statistical analysis is not written properly. Need complete revision stating about the ANOVA and statistical-design followed in the study.
Answer: Thank you for reviewer’s comments. And we review the ‘2.5. Statistic analysis’ in line 156 to 163, ‘Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS Statistics 19 (Chicago, IL, USA) were used to process and analysis. For the milling quality, appearance quality and cooking and eating quality data of O8 and WT with different fertilization treatments, the data were pooled for calculation of means and standard errors (SE) and analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by the LSD test at p≤0.05 to determine the statistical significance of the differences between O8 and WT. IBM SPSS Statistics 19 was used for ANOVA analysis of variance between treatments. Two-way ANOVA was used for rice materials, different fertilization treatments, and their interaction by Duncan's multiple Test (p≤0.05).’
Question: 9. Results and Discussion parts are well written stating the possible scientific background of the results. What was the specific recommendation made from this study?
Answer: Thank you for reviewer’s comments. I add the recommendations on molecular breeding in the last paragraph, line 446 to 447. ‘Therefore, OsNRT2.3b can be used as a genetic marker for breeding high quality and high yield in molecular breeding.’
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The ms agriculture-1713274 with the title of Effects of Carbon and Nitrogen Fertilizers on Rice Quality of OsNRT2.3b Gene Over-expression line applied nitrogen-efficient lines and wild type with different ratios of nitrogen and carbon fertilizers under field conditions to study the effects of different fertilization treatments on rice quality. The ms has to be improved. Below are my comments:
The line numbers should be continued within the whole ms instead of for each page! Also, the language of the ms should be improved by a native speaker or by language editing service.
Page 1
L30-36 please cite this ref: https://doi.org/10.15835/nbha49412501
high-yield and high-quality of rice! How breeders can achieve this together at the same time?
L39-40 and where it is possible within the ms: please cite this ref: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10081657
Page 2
L37-38 please cite the above suggested ref.
Please try to go through the introduction and rearrange it again because there is jumping among sentencens from issue to another issue.
Add the hypotheses at the end of the introduction section.
The Latin name of rice should be added in the first sentence where rice was mentioned in the introduction section! Please add it.
L52 add L. after the Latin name of (Oryza sativa)
Page 3
What was the available N and K contents? Please add these values in the material and sections along with the total content values.
I am really wondering why the authors decided to use such big variation in their treatments! For examples, the first rate for N or C was 90 kg/ha, then the second single rate for N or C was 270 kg/ha! Why they did not use 180 kg/ha? From 90-270 kg/ha is a big variation!
The authors have to explain how the analysis was done for different measurements in the material and methods section.
In section 2.5 Statistic analysis, the authors have to add more details about the company name of SPSS and country etc. as well as which test they used to show the differences among different treatments? at which level P value was used? etc. Please revise and improve this section.
Fig 3 there is something wrong, please revise and check
In the results section, the authors have to explain their results showing the differences in terms of percentages within the text.
Page 11
L27-29 please remove this text into introduction. This section should focus on the most important findings.
The conclusion is very weak and must be improved.
Good luck, reviewer
Author Response
Dear Reviewer，
Thank you very much for your comments.
We have substantially revised our manuscript after reading the comments.
Reviewer comments,
The ms agriculture-1713274 with the title of Effects of Carbon and Nitrogen Fertilizers on Rice Quality of OsNRT2.3b Gene Over-expression line applied nitrogen-efficient lines and wild type with different ratios of nitrogen and carbon fertilizers under field conditions to study the effects of different fertilization treatments on rice quality. The ms has to be improved. Below are my comments:
Question: 1. The line numbers should be continued within the whole ms instead of for each page! Also, the language of the ms should be improved by a native speaker or by language editing service.
Answer: Thank you for reviewer’s comments. We have review the line. And the language of the ms have been improved by a native speaker.
Question: 2. Page 1 L30-36 please cite this ref: https://doi.org/10.15835/nbha49412501 high-yield and high-quality of rice! How breeders can achieve this together at the same time?
Answer: Thank you for reviewer’s comments.
(1) We have added the reference in line 33.
Line 464 to 466, ‘2. Rasheed, A.; Seleiman, M.F.; Nawaz, M.; Mahmood, A.; Anwar, M.R.; Ayub, M.A.; Aamer, M.; El-Esawi, M.A.; El-Harty, E.H.; Batool, M.; et al. Agronomic and genetic approaches for enhancing tolerance to heat stress in rice: A review. Not. Bot. Horti Agrobot. Cluj-Napoca 2021,49, 12501.’
(2) At present, marker-assisted selection (MAS) is an important tool for rice plant breeding (Collard et al., 2008). The development of functional rice can also be conducted using MAS. Wu et al. reported that the Giant embryo gene (GE) and golden-like rice gene (OsALDH7) have been identified, the molecular markers linked to these genes and the functional markers derived from these genes can be designed for breeding programs. The Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, Chiayi Agricultural Experiment Station (TARI, CAES) has made efforts to develop different functional rice cultivars, including the giant embryo rice (Tainung78, TNG78), golden-like rice (Tainung76, TNG76), purple waxy rice (CNY922401), and red waxy rice (TNGSW 26). All cultivars exhibited a high yield and high quality with respect to their corresponding functional rice characteristics. Therefore, by constructing the molecular marker of OsNRT2.3b, high-yield and high-quality rice varieties may be bred in the future through the efforts of breeders.
References
Collard, B., Vera Cruz, C., McNally, K.L., Virk, P., Mackill, D. Rice molecular breeding laboratories in the genomics era: Current status and future considerations. Int. J. Plant Genom. 2008; 2008, 524847.
Wu, Y. P., Chang, Y. C., Kuo, H. I., Lin, B. N., Wang, S. M., & Tseng, Y. C. The Development of Two High-Yield and High-Quality Functional Rice Cultivars Using Marker-Assisted Selection and Conventional Breeding Methods. International journal of molecular sciences, 2022, 23(9), 4678.
Question: 2. Page 1 L39-40 and where it is possible within the ms: please cite this ref: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10081657
Answer: Thank you for reviewer’s comments. We have add the reference in line 41.
Line 477 to 479, ‘9. Badawy, S.A.; Zayed, B.A.; Bassiouni, S.M.A.; Mahdi, A.H.A.; Majrashi, A.; Ali, E.F.; Seleiman, M.F. Influence of Nano Silicon and Nano Selenium on Root Characters, Growth, Ion Selectivity, Yield, and Yield Components of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) under Salinity Conditions. Plants 2021, 10, 1657.’
Question: 3. Page 2 L37-38 please cite the above suggested ref. Please try to go through the introduction and rearrange it again because there is jumping among sentencens from issue to another issue.
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. And we add the reference in line 94, and have rearranged the statements. ‘N, P and Fe are essential nutrients for rice and have important effects on rice growth, yield and quality [9, 32-34]. Many factors that affect rice quality, such as changes in nutrient uptake by rice.’
Question: 4. Page 2 Add the hypotheses at the end of the introduction section.
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. And we added the hypotheses in line 100 to 101, ‘However, OsNRT2.3b on rice quality under different fertilization conditions has not been reported.’
Question: 5. Page 2 The Latin name of rice should be added in the first sentence where rice was mentioned in the introduction section! Please add it.
L52 add L. after the Latin name of (Oryza sativa)
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. And we have written the name of rice as ‘Rice (Oryza sativa)’ in line 33, and ‘rice (Oryza sativa L.)’ in line 111.
Question: 6. Page 3 What was the available N and K contents? Please add these values in the material and sections along with the total content values.
Answer: In the description of soil elements, the phenomenon that is not well described has appeared, and we have made review, ‘available N content, 0.49 g/kg’ and ‘available K, 3.94×10-3 g/kg’.
Question: 7. I am really wondering why the authors decided to use such big variation in their treatments! For examples, the first rate for N or C was 90 kg/ha, then the second single rate for N or C was 270 kg/ha! Why they did not use 180 kg/ha? From 90-270 kg/ha is a big variation!
Answer: In field management, 180 kg/ha is the normal nitrogen rate, as described by Zhang et al. (2021). Therefore, we designed the high nitrogen rate 270 kg/ha according to the low nitrogen rate and the normal nitrogen rate.
Reference
Zhang, S., Zhang, Y., Li, K., Yan, M., Zhang, J., Yu, M., Tang, S., Wang, L., Qu, H., Luo, L., Xuan, W., Xu, G. Nitrogen Mediates Flowering Time and Nitrogen Use Efficiency via Floral Regulators in Rice. Curr Biol. 2021 31(4):671-683.
Question: 8. The authors have to explain how the analysis was done for different measurements in the material and methods section.
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. And we explain how to measure the indicators in the material and methods section.
Line 150 to 154, ‘The protein content in rice was determined by Kjeldahl analyzer (FOSS TECATOR Kjeltec8400).
The harvested rice is threshed with a thresher, and after the seeds are air-dried, hulled with a rice husker (SY88-TH), and then degerminated with a whitening machine (BLH-3120) to become polished rice for calculating roughness and precision.’
Question: 9. In section 2.5 Statistic analysis, the authors have to add more details about the company name of SPSS and country etc. as well as which test they used to show the differences among different treatments? at which level P value was used? etc. Please revise and improve this section.
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. We show more calculation method in section 2.5 Statistic analysis.
Line 156 to 163, ‘Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS Statistics 19 (Chicago, IL, USA) were used to process and analysis. For the milling quality, appearance quality and cooking and eating quality data of O8 and WT with different fertilization treatments, the data were pooled for calculation of means and standard errors (SE) and analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by the LSD test at p≤0.05 to determine the statistical significance of the differences between O8 and WT. IBM SPSS Statistics 19 was used for ANOVA analysis of variance between treatments. Two-way ANOVA was used for rice materials, different fertilization treatments, and their interaction by Duncan's multiple Test (p≤0.05).’
Question: 10. Fig 3 there is something wrong, please revise and check
In the results section, the authors have to explain their results showing the differences in terms of percentages within the text.
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. We have revised Figure 3. And we have reinterpreted the results as percentages. (lines 245, 250, 252 and 253 to 254)
Question: 11. Page 11 L27-29 please remove this text into introduction. This section should focus on the most important findings.
Answer: Thank you for your comments. We have deleted the sentences of line 438 to 440. Because the deleted part and the first paragraph of the introduction are repeated.
Question: 12. The conclusion is very weak and must be improved.
Answer: We appreciate reviewer’s comments. And we improved the conclusion and added the sentence in line 446 to 447, ‘Therefore, OsNRT2.3b can be used as a genetic marker for breeding high quality and high yield in molecular breeding.’
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have addressed my comments.
Author Response
We invited the experts to revise and polish our manuscript (The reference No.JOQUU_1).
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Editor
The ms has been improved according to my suggestions. However, the authors should go through their ms and correct the typos errors. Also, they should add (L.) after the Latin name of rice as I asked them in first round (see first sentence in introduction).
Best regards, Reviewer
Author Response
Q: The ms has been improved according to my suggestions. However, the authors should go through their ms and correct the typos errors. Also, they should add (L.) after the Latin name of rice as I asked them in first round (see first sentence in introduction).
A: Thank you very much for your comments.
1) We invited the experts to revise and polish our manuscript (The reference No.JOQUU_1).
2) We have add (L.) after the Latin name of rice, Rice (Oryza sativa L.).
