Retraction to: Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13429 Published online 9 July 2014
The Editors are retracting this Article because they no longer have confidence in data that support one of its key conclusions. In the study, a putative CCR5 −1 PRF sequence was cloned into the dual luciferase reporter vector, p2luci1, in which transcription is driven from an SV40 promoter and is enhanced by the presence of an artificial intron. Further investigation revealed that the CCR5-derived sequence contained a cryptic 3′ splice acceptor site, resulting in generation of artefactual splice variants. In an attempt to replicate their results, the authors conducted assays using an improved version of the dual luciferase reporter2, in which the SV40 promoter was replaced by the strong CMV promoter and the artificial intron was absent. This revealed that the CCR5-derived sequence did not promote detectable levels of programmed −1 ribosomal frameshifting. These findings have been replicated by at least two other groups3, suggesting that the perceived frameshifting activity was due to a splicing artefact. These concerns undermine the main conclusion of the study.
Ashton Trey Belew, Sharmishtha Musalgaonkar, Vivek M. Advani and Sergey O. Sulima agree with this retraction. Arturas Meskauskas, Wojciech K. Kasprzak, Bruce A. Shapiro and Jonathan D. Dinman disagree with this retraction.
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Author information
Sergey O. Sulima
Present address: VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, KU Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium
These authors contributed equally: Ashton Trey Belew, Arturas Meskauskas
Authors and Affiliations
Ashton Trey Belew, Arturas Meskauskas, Sharmishtha Musalgaonkar, Vivek M. Advani, Sergey O. Sulima & Jonathan D. Dinman
Department of Biotechnology and Microbiology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, LT, Lithuania
Basic Science Program, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland, USA
Wojciech K. Kasprzak
Basic Research Laboratory, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland, USA
Bruce A. Shapiro
Corresponding author
Correspondence to Jonathan D. Dinman.
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Belew, A.T., Meskauskas, A., Musalgaonkar, S. et al. Retraction Note: Ribosomal frameshifting in the CCR5 mRNA is regulated by miRNAs and the NMD pathway. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11149-4
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DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11149-4
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