Zhang F., Jin X., Wang L., Li S., Wu S., Cheng C., Zhang T., and Guo W. A Cotton Annexin Affects Fiber Elongation and Secondary Cell Wall Biosynthesis Associated with Ca2+ Influx, ROS Homeostasis, and Actin Filament Reorganization.
The authors have chosen to retract the above article from Plant Physiology following an investigation into concerns centered on the origins and assembly of several figures. These concerns stem from the findings that (1) in Figure 4A the images for OE-2 and OE-5 are the same, with OE-2 elongated relative to the image in OE-5; (2) in Figure 4B images for all lines are the same with variations in cropping, intensity, and orientation; (3) in Figure 7B the images for RNAi-2 and RNAi-3 are the same and reflected along the horizontal axis; and (4) in Figure 7H the bright-field images used for the Control and 2-APB treatments are the same cell with different cropping. In addition, the TDO AD-RecT yeast colony in Figure 5A was reused to represent the TDO BD-CDPK/AD-Rboh-ΔN colony in Figure 9D and the 50 mm Ca2+ colony in Figure 9F. The TDO BD-lam/AD-RecT yeast colony in Figure 9D was similarly reused as the QDO BD-CDPK/AD-Rboh-ΔN colony in Figure 9D and the TDO negative colony in Figure 9F.
The corresponding author has engaged two staff members, including the first author of this article, to repeat all of the experiments associated with the above problematic images as well as other experiments reported in the article. To date, portions of the work have been reproduced with similar results.
Nonetheless, because of concerns around the original handling of the data, the authors choose to retract the article from Plant Physiology to avoid further negative effects on the plant research community. The authors regret any inconvenience or trouble caused by the original publication and apologize sincerely to the readers, reviewers, and editors of Plant Physiology.