Revision of the --Manuscript Draft-- Manuscript Number: sustainability-1770452

Title: Assessment of genetic diversity of bread wheat genotypes for drought tolerance using canopy reflectance-based phenotyping and SSR marker-based genotyping

Type: Article

This is a manuscript within the scope of the journal "Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050) ". It is relevant as study suggesting that combining reflectance-based indirect phenotyping with SSR-based genotyping might be an effective technique to assess genetic diversity to improve drought tolerance of bread wheat genotypes.

The manuscript is presented in a well-structured manner. However, the Abstract should be about 200 words maximum. The actual ms has 275 words.

From my point of view, the content succinctly described and contextualized with respect to previous and present theoretical background and applied research on the topic. However, in the Introduction section the authors do not mention all references relevant to the research. In the LNs 98-100 is mentioned the use of high-throughput-origin indirect phenotypic data along with the SSR markers to explore wheat genetic diversity is scanty. I suggest adding at least the papers:

Moraga, F.; Alcaíno, M.; Matus, I.; Castillo, D.; del Pozo, A. Leaf and Canopy Traits Associated with Stay-Green Expression Are Closely Related to Yield Components of Wheat Genotypes with Contrasting Tolerance to Water Stress. Plants 2022, 11, 292. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11030292

Pandey, A.; Khobra, R.; Mamrutha, H.M.; Wadhwa, Z.; Krishnappa, G.; Singh, G.; Singh, G.P. Elucidating the Drought Responsiveness in Wheat Genotypes. Sustainability 2022, 14, 3957. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073957

The research design, questions, hypotheses and methods are clearly stated. Moreover, the arguments and discussion of findings are coherent, balanced and compelling.

I suggest the authors for improving the ms to take care with the not appropriate use of Abbreviations for the whole document. LNs 105, 115, 127, 128, 177, 219, 220, 225-227, 229, 230, 269, 271-274, 281, 283, 285, 333, 345, 346, 348, 350, 352, 371, 411, 420-422.

The conclusions is thoroughly supported by the results presented in the ms.

The ms is not adequately referenced. See LNs 188, 203, 315, 354, 398, 455, 472. Moreover, according to Reference List and Citations Style Guide for MDPI Journals: For documents co-authored by a large number of persons (more than 10 authors), you can either cite all authors, or cite the first ten authors, then add a semicolon and add ‘et al.’ at the end.

I suggest the authors to write DOI numbers (Digital Object Identifier) because they are not mandatory but highly encouraged.

More aspects are mentioned in the revised document.