Kyoto University is recommending retraction for five papers by a former botany researcher there after an institutional inquiry turned up evidence of fraud.
The investigation of Lianwei Peng, who left the school in May 2011, found 11 images had been manipulated in the papers, according to a press release. The corresponding author on all five papers, Toshiharu Shikanai, may face disciplinary action, the university’s statement said.
Shikanai’s faculty page at Kyoto University, shown here in an archived snapshot from November 2020, now bears a message that “the requested page cannot be found.”
In January 2020, Elisabeth Bik posted on PubPeer about signs of potential image manipulation in a 2011 PLOS Biology paper by Peng and Shikanai. The journal published an expression of concern that October which noted “integrity issues.” It states:
Following the publication of this article [1], concerns were raised regarding irregularities in Figs 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C, 4B, 4F, 4G, 5B and S1B. Specifically,
Concerns were raised about discontinuities in the lower regions of lanes 1 and 5 in Fig 2B, which suggest that rectangular portions of the image were spliced or otherwise altered. The corresponding author provided the underlying gel image for Fig 2B (S1 File). Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining in the areas of concern was not as strong in the raw image as in the figure, supporting that the image was selectively enhanced or otherwise manipulated in these areas. This is in violation of community standards and PLOS Biology’s requirements for image data reporting, which require that any adjustments must be applied consistently to the entire image. The underlying data provided by the authors support the overall results presented in Fig 2B, although the PLOS Biology Editors remain concerned about the integrity with which the data were reported in the published article.
Splicing concerns were raised for several figures in this article, including panels of Figs 3A, 3B, 3C and 4B, and panels in the S1B File of the original article. The authors noted that lanes had been removed and/or rearranged during preparation of the panels in questions, as was confirmed by the original raw images provided upon request and presented in the Supporting Information S3–S6 and S9 Files below.
Vertical discontinuities were detected in several panels in this article, including panels of Figs 2C, 4F, 4G and 5B. The authors noted for that these figures lanes had also been removed and/or rearranged during preparation of the panels in question, but that the original image data were no longer available for these panels. Instead, the authors have provided data from replicate experiments in the Supporting Information S2, S7, S8 and S10 Files below that seemingly support their conclusions.
The underlying data and repeat experiment data received by the journal are published in the supporting information files. The authors have not commented on the availability of underlying data to support the other results reported in the article.
Although overall the data provided to address these concerns seem to support the conclusions of the article, given that original files were not available for assessment in a number of instances and the integrity issues surrounding the preparation of Fig 2B, the PLOS Biology Editors issue this Expression of Concern to notify readers and relay the supporting data and updated figures provided by the corresponding author.
Kyoto University began investigating Peng after the blogger “Lemon Stoism” in November 2020 posted about the expression of concern and notified the university about it, as well as reports in Japanese media that Shikanai had acknowledged images had been tampered with.
One of those reports, from the Kyoto Shimbun, stated that the journal had raised concerns about manipulated images five years earlier. Yet the university did not launch its investigation until 2020, after the expression of concern was published and Lemon Stoism contacted them.
Of seven papers the university investigated that Peng had published between 2008 and 2012, the committee determined that five contained manipulated images and should be retracted:
- “The Chloroplast NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase Complex Interacts with Photosystem I in Arabidopsis,” Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2008
- “Chloroplast stromal proteins, CRR6 and CRR7, are required for assembly of the NAD(P)H dehydrogenase subcomplex A in Arabidopsis,” The Plant Journal, 2010
- “A Chaperonin Subunit with Unique Structures Is Essential for Folding of a Specific Substrate,” PLOS Biology, 2011 (expression of concern published in 2020)
- “Supercomplex Formation with Photosystem I Is Required for the Stabilization of the Chloroplast NADH Dehydrogenase-Like Complex in Arabidopsis,” Plant Physiology, 2011
- “Multistep Assembly of Chloroplast NADH Dehydrogenase-Like Subcomplex A Requires Several Nucleus-Encoded Proteins, Including CRR41 and CRR42, in Arabidopsis,” The Plant Cell, 2012
The five papers have been cited over 350 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science, with nearly 140 of those to the 2008 Journal of Biological Chemistry article. More than three dozen of the citations to the five papers came after November 2020 after Lemon Stoism’s post.
We’ve reached out to Shikanai and Peng, whose recent work lists an affiliation at Shanghai Normal University, but have not heard back.
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at [email protected].