EARLY FLOWERING3 Gene Confers Earlier Flowering and Enhancement of Salt Tolerance in Woody Plant Osmanthus fragrans
and Bin Dong 1,2,3,*
Lisa Alexander
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In this study, authors identified a candidate gene OfELF3-like2 from Osmanthus fragrans and found that the expression of ELF3-like2 was upregulated during floral bud differentiation, and the gene was significantly induced by salt stress treatment. Furthermore, overexpression of ELF3-like2 accelerated the flowering and significantly improved salt tolerance of transgenic lines in Arabidopsis. The results provided valuable information for understanding flowering and salt tolerance in O. fragrans. I suggest acceptance of the manuscript after the minor revision.
Major and minor concerns:
1. Authors identified three OfELF3-like genes potential fragments from RNA-seq dataset. However, according to phylogenetic analysis of OfELF3-like2 (gui0033520.1) with other plant species (Figure 1B) and functional characterization (Figures 4-6), gui0033520.1 could be the ortholog of ELF3 in Osmanthus fragrans. Thus, the authors should name it OfELF3.
2. In Line 369, 5’-3’ should be 5'-3'.
Author Response
1. Authors identified three OfELF3-like genes potential fragments from RNA-seq dataset. However, according to phylogenetic analysis of OfELF3-like2 (gui0033520.1) with other plant species (Figure 1B) and functional characterization (Figures 4-6), gui0033520.1 could be the ortholog of ELF3 in Osmanthus fragrans. Thus, the authors should name it OfELF3.
Response: Thanks for your suggestion. In our revised manuscript, we have changed OfELF3-like2 to the name of OfELF3.
2. In Line 369, 5’-3’ should be 5'-3'.
Response: Thanks for your suggestion. We have modified the title of Table S1, please check it.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript, “An EARLY FLOWERING 3 Like gene confers earlier flowering and enhancement of salt tolerance in Osmanthus fragrans”, details the sequencing, cloning, expression analysis, and functional verification of OfELF3-like2 gene. The study was carefully conducted and creates confidence in the results and interpretation of the gene’s function. The authors could make substantial improvements to the figures to better understand the results; as it is, the figures are too pressed together and much of the information that should be on the axes are missing. Comments by line number are below.
332: Replace “Heap” with “Heat”
332: For part A, it is not clear what the number in the boxes are, or the numbers on the heat map legend. Here and elsewhere, consider breaking these into separate figures so that each figure has all the information it needs to interpret it without looking back to the text.
350: Part A is missing scale bar.
353: E – G should be “F”
357: Part A is missing scale bar
358: Part C is missing scale bar
363: Part A is missing scale bar
Author Response
1. 332: Replace “Heap” with “Heat”
Response: we are sorry for the writing mistake. We have modified the title of Figure1 A (Line 208) in the revised manuscript.
2. 332: For part A, it is not clear what the number in the boxes are, or the numbers on the heat map legend. Here and elsewhere, consider breaking these into separate figures so that each figure has all the information it needs to interpret it without looking back to the text.
Response: According to your suggestion, we have modified the Figure 1 (Line 209), and a table was added in the revised manuscript (Line 207-208). The table showed the information of differentially expressed OfELF3 genes after salt stress treatment.
3. 350: Part A is missing scale bar.
Response: The scale bar was added in the Figure 4A of the revised manuscript (Line 270).
4. 353: E – G should be “F”
Response: The order “E – G” changed into the “F” in revised manuscript (Line 274).
5. 357: Part A is missing scale bar
Response: The scale bar was added in the Figure 5A of the revised manuscript (Line 300).
6. 358: Part C is missing scale bar
Response: The scale bar was added in the Figure 5C of the revised manuscript (Line 300).
7. 363: Part A is missing scale bar
Response: The scale bar was added in the Figure 5C of the revised manuscript (Line 306).
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
