GENETICS
Retraction for “A prion of yeast metacaspase homolog (Mca1p) detected by a genetic screen,” by Julie Nemecek, Toru Nakayashiki and Reed B. Wickner, which appeared in issue 6, February 10, 2009, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (106:1892–1896; first published January 27, 2009; 10.1073/pnas.0812470106).
The authors wish to note the following: “In our efforts to extend our published paper, we now find that we cannot reproduce certain results reported there. Specifically, all transformants of strain 4827 carrying p20MCA (lacking p1116) are Ade+, making selection of prion-containing cells impossible. Also, strains denoted mca1Δ have a normal MCA1 gene. Other efforts by R.B.W. and T.N. to demonstrate a prion of Mca1p have also been unsuccessful. We therefore retract the paper.”
Julie Nemecek
Toru Nakayashiki
Reed B. Wickner