Fly study retracted

Researchers have retracted a study that pinpointed a specific gene in Drosophila required to maintain healthy cell activity, published two years ago in Current Biology. In a linkurl:retraction notice;http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VRT-4XF85VF-P&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=37ff9ee170319a71ae14c5c0a2a41692 published in the journal earlier this month (October 13), they attributed the retraction to mistakes with the genetic model used to isolate gene activity as well as errors in the subsequent genetic crosses used to study the flies.

Drosophila Image: Wikipedia

"Their original report ran counter to the thinking in the field, so I'm quite relieved to know that their result was dependent on another gene, or something else that we don't understand," wrote Lynne Cassimeris, a biologist from Leigh University in Pennsylvania who cited the paper in a linkurl:2009 study,;http://www.molbiolcell.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/15/3451 in an email to The Scientist. linkurl:Georgina Fletcher,;http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/ a postdoctoral fellow at Cancer Research UK in London, and linkurl:Pernille Rørth,;http://www.imcb.a-star.edu.sg/php/pr.php deputy director of the Institute of Molecular and...