Characterization of Secondary Metabolites Responsible for the Resistance of Local Tomato Accessions to Whitefly (Bemisia tabaci, Gennadius 1889) Hemiptera in Tanzania

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript contains new and significant information to justify publication. The problem is actual, and the experimental methods are comprehensible and adequately described. The introduction is concise, the discussion is justified by the results, and the literature citation is adequate. Additionally, references are up to date and relevant.

Furthermore, the manuscript meets the publication criteria of Crops. So, I recommend the minor revision:

1.      The first time a species appears in the text it must have the descriptor (the name of the authors and the date on which it was described).

2.      Line 66: Solanum galapagense – italics are missing.

3.      Line 67-68: Correll D’Arcy – remove italics.

4.  Lines 84-85: the authors say, “about 30 seeds of local tomato accessions obtained from the National Plant Genetic Resource Center located at TPHPA were screened for resistance against whiteflies in the screen house”. However, the authors do not explain how it was carried out... it is assumed that the resistance check was performed as described later for the 7 selected accessions, but a detailed description must be made.

5.     Standardize the colours of the figures: 2, 4 and 5 are black-and-white while the others are blue-and-grey.

6.      Table 1 must be formatted to the size of the page... it is partially trimmed.

7.      Line 242: “…inversion…”??

8.    Some references are incomplete (Journal name or vol/issue are missing) – e.g. references 3, 15, 17, 38, 44.

Author Response

see attached file

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

See my comments in attached pdf, author should provide photos of resistant and susceptible genotypes having high infestation of flies. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

see attached file

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

minor revision required as authors not provided data for table 3. :providing just information on present or absent is not sufficient, provide data in each box for comparison  between accessions for metabolites 

Author Response

see attached

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf