Retraction Notice to: FMN2 Makes Perinuclear Actin to Protect Nuclei during Confined Migration and Promote Metastasis
Our study reported that the formin-family actin nucleator FMN2 has a critical role in generating a perinuclear actin/FA system that protects the nucleus and DNA from damage, facilitating cell survival during confined cell migration associated with cancer metastasis. Shortly following publication, a lab with whom we had shared reagents noticed that cell lines that were supposed to be stably expressing GFP-FMN2 were not. We subsequently found that a western blot in the paper had been inappropriately manipulated and that multiple cell lines were not as reported. When we constructed and validated new cell lines and reagents, our attempts to reproduce critical results in the paper were unsuccessful. Based on an assessment by the NIH, analysis by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity (ORI), and Dr. Skau’s admission, the ORI found that the first author Colleen Skau engaged in research misconduct by fabrication and falsification of results reported in Figures 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, S2, S4, S5, S6, and S7, including reporting data that did not originate from experimental observations, selectively including and omitting data points, selectively omitting images and conditions from analyses, falsifying the quantitation of data including statistical analyses, and falsifying a western blot. We are therefore retracting the paper, and we apologize for the inconvenience we have caused.