Science retracts major Arabidopsis paper

Four out of five authors of a Science paper that the journal called a "breakthrough of the year" in 2005 have retracted it, saying that the data it was based on could not be replicated.The study, which described the migration of mRNA to initiate flowering, was based on real-time PCR data, which researchers in the Umeå Plant Science Center lab where it had been performed found impossible to replicate. According to principle investigator Ove Nilsson, first author Tao Huang had manipulated data, removing certain points and giving increased weight to others.Huang, the only author not to agree to the retraction, maintains that the data omissions were valid and documented. "Although I can understand and respect Professor Ove Nilsson... I think the retraction for this paper should not happen, [and was] at least immature," Hwang wrote in an E-mail to The Scientist. The work has been cited in...