Improvement of Seed Quality by Priming: Concept and Biological Basis
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors in the current review titled "Improvement of Seed Quality by Priming: Concept and Biological Basis" have described main priming technologies, benefits of seed priming. The review also focuses on a better understanding of the metabolic, biochemical and molecular mechanisms involved in the enhancement of germination after priming which can suggest various biochemical and molecular markers of priming treatment.
The review is well-written and has been researched thoroughly. The review is quite informative and will ramify knowledge on benefits of seed priming. I have a few comments to be minorly corrected before publication.
Table 1 needs to be formatted. The seed treatment section needs adjustment.
Some of the references are not cited in order in the text. For example [80] and [81] are cited after [82,83]. I would advise authors to go through the manuscript and rectify.
Author Response
Thank you for your comments that have improved the manuscript.
- Table 1 is now formatted, in particular the column that indicates the seed treatments (“non-primed” and “primed”).
- The order of the references was corrected in the text and in the reference list
Best regards
Dr F. Corbineau
Emeritus Prof. Sorbonne Université
Reviewer 2 Report
"Improvement of Seed Quality by Priming: Concept and Biological Basis" is an interesting review article providing detailed information about different seed priming methods and their benefits. It talks about molecular markers that might help to understand the genetic network involved in the process. Although I enjoyed reading the manuscript, there are still several areas the authors need to improve before being accepted for publication, as mentioned below.
1. Remove which from “water potential of the soil) and lastly, which germinate in a wide range”
2. Can you rewrite the statement to make it more clearer “It is well known that acquisition of seed quality occurs during seed development and the maturation phase [6], seed quality can be improved then by breeding and selection, two fundamental approaches”
3. “Three main strategies are used” for what?
4. This statement is too long and hard to read, please break it into two sentences. “The objective of this review is to indicate the main priming technologies, to describe some beneficial effects of the treatment in relation to temperature and oxygen supply, to specify the influence of the priming conditions on the efficiency of the treatment and to better understand the cellular, biochemical and molecular mechanisms associated with these treatments, which could suggest markers of the efficiency of priming.”
5. What does “//” indicate in the figure? Also, is it possible to give some approximate scale value to water content (y-axis) and time (x-axis).
6. “3.1. Seed sensitivity to temperature and oxygen” section it would be better to let the readers know which kind of priming is provided in each example.
7. Please rewrite the statement “Carrot seeds do likewise; after priming the germination is improved at low temperatures (5-10°C)(Fig. 2C) [17,18,31], i.e. when sowing occurs early in spring.”
8. How ” increases the seedling emergence” is associated with “increase in mean plant weight.” If you mean priming increases plant weight, then you should change “and results in an increase in mean plant weight” to “mean plant weight.”
9. Please revisit the seed treatment of “Table 1.”. Also, the digit for germination at different levels of oxygen is a percentage or mean value of germination for four replications. Additionally, please mention approximately how many seeds were used for each species for the germination test at different oxygen concentrations.
10. Please rewrite the statement “As reported by Khan [87] in lettuce, cabbage, tomato, and sweet-corn seeds, and Corbineau [2,82] in sunflower and carrot, ACC dependent ethylene production might be a good marker of seed vigor, and the efficiency of priming.”
11. Please rewrite “Seed priming results in a decrease in oligosaccharides and in an increase in sucrose, the content of which is clearly correlated with the efficiency of priming in carrot [2,82] and fenel”
12. Remove however from “However, mRNA and ribosome synthesis as well as ”
13. Please check and rewrite if needed “or during hydro-priming in proteome of durum wheat”
Author Response
Thank you for your comments and your suggestions that helped me to improve the manuscript. I have taken into account all of them.
Page 1 (1) Correction done
Page 1 (2) The sentence was rewritten
Page 2 (3) I have completed the sentence
Page 2 (4) The statement was broken into 2 sentences
Page 3 (5) “//” indicated in Figure 1 was explained in the legend. The value of water content (y-axis) is in the legend and in the text page 2
Page 3 (6) The type of priming was indicated in section 3.1
Page 3 (7) The statement was rewritten
Page 4 (8) The correction was done
Table 1 (9) was formatted and the number of seeds used was indicated in the legend. For each species, the origin of the data was indicated in the Table (first column)
Page 8 (10) The sentence was rewritten
Page 8 (11) The sentence was rewritten and the title of the section 4.2 was changed
Page 9 (12) “”However” was removed
Best regards
Dr F. Corbineau
Emeritus Prof. Sorbonne Université
Reviewer 3 Report
The review is dedicated to seed priming, an important method, widely used in seed technology. The article will be interesting to a wide range of specialists both in horticulture and plant science. The quality of the text is very good, with only minor correction needed. Biochemical and genetic markers are an important part of the current research in seed science and technology. Perhaps more should be said on how exactly such markers will benefit research and (especially) seed production.
Questions and suggestions to the text:
Often several (as many as 7) references are listed together, so it is difficult to understand to which statements they refer to.
In 3.2 is a good example where references follow each crop species.
Carmen – carmine?
What are “hornemental conditions”? (3.1.)
There is no reference to the source in Figure 3, as well as in the preceding text about Primula seed germination. Primula is the scientific name of the genus, so it should be italicized (or could be replaced by “primrose”).
Table 1: “in atmosphere containing oxygen at” - what is “at”?
The table formatting looks distorted (Non-primed and Primed are in the same line)
Fenel - Fennel
In 4.2: one term should be used (Active or Reactive Oxygen Species)
Is sugar content of the primed seeds directly related to the oxidative status? This should be explained in more detail.
p.10 “carbon skeleton of macromolecular biosynthesis” - this part of the sentence is unclear. Does it mean that respiration is driving the biosynthesis of the carbon skeleton of macromolecules?
Conclusions: “There is a lack of omics in primed seeds” - perhaps, the meaning of ‘omics’ should be stated, e.g. a lack of research or knowledge of the molecular/epigenetic processes. This sentence should be improved.
“Primed seeds can be considered as a high vigor seeds, however in some species they cannot be stored.” - this sentence doesn’t seem in the right place, because the rest of the paragraph is about different priming techniques.
Author Response
Thank you for your comments and suggestions that helped me to improve the manuscript.
- I have tried to reduce the number of references listed together
- Carmen was replaced by carmine
- Primula was now in italic
- Table 1 was formatted and I have cited the corresponding references following the 5 species studied
- Fenel was replaced by fennel
- Section 4.2. I have used “Reactive Oxygen Species”. I agree with you, soluble sugars are not directly related with ROS even though they are considered to contribute to the stabilization of intracellular glasses by increasing cytoplasmic viscosity and the glass-to-liquid transition temperature and consequently reduced the ROS production.
- Page 10: the sentence was rewritten to be clearer
- Conclusion: the second part of the sentence “Primed seeds …. stored” was suppressed.
Best regards
Dr F. Corbineau
Emeritus Prof. Sorbonne Université
