Potency of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles, Sodium Hydrogen Sulfide and Salicylic Acid in Ameliorating the Depressive Effects of Water Deficit on Periwinkle Ornamental Quality

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

I have read your manuscript concerning application of TiO2 NPs, NaSH and SA in protection periwinkle plants against water deficiency. I found it interesting and of potential apllicability impact. You took a lot of measurements and provided detailed and well documented statistical analyses. The manuscript seems to be mature and of overall good merit. I have only a couple of suggestions:

title - seems too long for me. Maybe it is a good idea to emphasise in the title the drought-stress tolerance meaning of your experiments?

line 78 - provide full Latin name in M&M, even though it was given in the Introduction, erase "cv." - apostrophy is enough in naming the cultivars in the manuscript

97 - 21 "treatments" or "experimental units" not factors 

121 - seems like there is something lacking in this sentence

Tables - there is plenty of data presented. Please, remove vertical lines and most of the horizontal ones. Let there be horizontal lines only between Available water content different levels and compounds. Is it possible to show some results on graphs?

Table 4 - please, define stress tolerance index in M&M

Can you provide some photos of plants showing the effect of drought-stress inhibiotors?

Best regards

Author Response

Reviewer #1: I have read your manuscript concerning application of TiO₂ NPs, NaSH and SA in protection periwinkle plants against water deficiency. I found it interesting and of potential applicability impact. You took a lot of measurements and provided detailed and well documented statistical analyses. The manuscript seems to be mature and of overall good merit. I have only a couple of suggestions:

 

Title - seems too long for me. Maybe it is a good idea to emphasize in the title the drought-stress tolerance meaning of your experiments?

Authors: The title was adjusted accordingly (Lines 2-4).

 

line 78 - provide full Latin name in M&M, even though it was given in the Introduction, erase "cv." - apostrophe is enough in naming the cultivars in the manuscript

Authors: Done (Line 77).

 

97 - 21 "treatments" or "experimental units" not factors

Authors: Done (Line 96).

 

121 - seems like there is something lacking in this sentence

Authors: This sentence was re-phrased (Lines 119-121).

 

Tables - there is plenty of data presented. Please, remove vertical lines and most of the horizontal ones. Let there be horizontal lines only between Available water content different levels and compounds. Is it possible to show some results on graphs?

Authors: (1) All Tables were adjusted as suggested. (2) Figure 1 provides the correlations among all traits under study. Focusing on specific traits (by plotting them individually) will considerably lengthen the manuscript.

 

Table 4 - please, define stress tolerance index in M&M

Authors: This is now provided (Lines 163-164).

 

Can you provide some photos of plants showing the effect of drought-stress inhibitors?

Authors: Representative pictures are now included (new Figures S1–3).

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks for the opportunity to review this research intitled “The relative effectiveness and optimal concentration of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, sodium hydrogen sulfide and salicylic acid in promoting periwinkle ornamental quality is independent of water availability”. The article is the article is a bit heavy to read. The topic is very interesting and contains important ideas, the methods used are well explained (perhaps they should be written more succinctly), the results obtained must be reread and compared with the tables to be well understood and this factor makes the article not easy to read. The discussion, on the other hand, is very poor and the authors must expand it. spray treatments with NaSH, SA and TiO2 have been used by other authors on different species. what results have the other authors obtained? Have other authors found toxic effects on plants? The authors must include photos of the plants obtained (even only in Supplementary). finally, the authors should re-read the “Instructions for Authors” about “References” and correct all references of their article.

Author Response

Reviewer #2: Thanks for the opportunity to review this research entitled “The relative effectiveness and optimal concentration of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, sodium hydrogen sulfide and salicylic acid in promoting periwinkle ornamental quality is independent of water availability”. The article is a bit heavy to read. The topic is very interesting and contains important ideas, the methods used are well explained (perhaps they should be written more succinctly), the results obtained must be reread and compared with the tables to be well understood and this factor makes the article not easy to read. The discussion, on the other hand, is very poor and the authors must expand it. Spray treatments with NaSH, SA and TiO₂ have been used by other authors on different species. What results have the other authors obtained? Have other authors found toxic effects on plants? The authors must include photos of the plants obtained (even only in Supplementary). Finally, the authors should re-read the “Instructions for Authors” about “References” and correct all references of their article.

Authors: (1) As suggested, materials and methods were shortened in several passages; (2) The discussion was enriched accordingly (Lines 473-475, 486-490, 497-498, 517-518); (3) It is now mentioned that toxicity symptoms were absent (Lines 315-316), while representative pictures are now included (new Figures S1–3); and (4) The references were now adjusted to the appropriate format.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I am satisfied with the changes made to the manuscript. Authors must write in italics "Agronomy" (reference number 18).