Table of contents: 2016

The retracted article is:Zhou Y, Xu JC, Jia YF and Xu CS (2015). Role of death receptors in the regulation of hepatocyte proliferation and apoptosis during rat liver regeneration. Genet. Mol. Res. 14: 14066-14075.Two major concerns were found in the article. Firstly, the group had published multiple articles on the topic of rat liver regeneration, but they do not refer to their own research and do not discuss the similarities and differences in their results.Secondly, there is a considerable amount of overlap with other paper published by the same group that was not referenced, that can be found at: https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/cmble.2014.19.issue-2/s11658-014....The GMR editorial staff was alerted and after a thorough investigation, we have strong reason to believe that the peer review process was failure. Also after review and contacting the authors, the editors of Genetics and Molecular Research decided to retract the article in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The authors and their institutions were advised of this serious breach of ethics.

The retracted article is: Zhao H, Zhang HW, Zhang T and Gu XM (2016). Tumor necrosis factor alpha gene -308G>A polymorphism association with the risk of esophageal cancer in a Han Chinese population. Genet. Mol. Res. 15: gmr.15025866. Two major concerns were found in this article. Firstly, it was found to be substantially equal to the article “Tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene -308G > A polymorphism alters the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in a Han Chinese population” published in the Diagnostic Pathology Diagnostic Pathology (2014) 9: 199, by Feng et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2014 - DOI: 10.1186/s13000-014-0199-3. Secondly, the authors do not discuss limitations of their approaches in the discussion. The discussion is largely an elaboration of the literature in the introduction part. However, even in that context, the discussion does not appropriately review the literature and there are frequent references to conclusions that are not supported by the cited literature. The GMR editorial staff was alerted and after a thorough investigation, there is strong reason to believe that the peer review process was failure. Also, after review and contacting the authors, the editors of Genetics and Molecular Research decided to retract this article in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The authors and their institutions were advised of this serious breach of ethics.

This study aimed to link the genetic variation observed using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis among 11 Cuminum cyminum L. accessions, collected from diverse ecogeographical areas in Saudi Arabia, with their antioxidant capacity to better identify potential genotypes for breeding programs for this medicinal spice. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed genetic variation among cumin germplasms and distinct polymorphisms (100%). Protein polymorphisms were identified based on the number of polypeptide bands (288) with molecular weights ranging from 13.85 to 350 kDa, band intensity, the appearance of new bands, and the absence of other bands. RAPD analysis revealed 363 amplified DNA products with a high polymorphism value (98.88%) based on DNA band type (unique, non-unique, and monomorphic), DNA 90 to 1085-bp long, and band intensity. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean clustering based on SDS-PAGE or RAPD and Jaccard’s similarity coefficient divided cumin accessions into similar but distinct clusters with respect to their location of collection. The antioxidant potential of cumin accessions based on 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity, the β-carotene-linoleate model system, and total phenolic and flavonoid contents revealed distinct variability. These data indicate that cumin is a valuable genetic resource with high antioxidant activity. Additionally, clustering based on antioxidant activity was not identical to that based on SDS-PAGE and RAPD. Data and clustering of SDS-PAGE and RAPD, combined with the high antioxidant capacity of cumin accessions, are important for the efficient use of genetic resources of cumin in breeding strategies and genetic improvement programs.

Mouriri elliptica (Mart.) is a genetic resource of the Cerrado domain, which has potential for food and medicinal use. A few studies have been performed on its in vitro propagation, and no studies have examined dissimilarities between plants of this species when cultivated in situ or in vitro. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to identify in vitro cultivation conditions that permit the formation of plantlets with leaf anatomical features that are less dissimilar to those of plants grown in situ. Thus, an anatomical study of the leaves was conducted to investigate the adaxial epidermis thickness, abaxial epidermis thickness, chlorenchyma thickness, stomatal crypt depth, stomatal crypt density, and leaf surface stomatal crypt aperture area. The distance between phenotypes was determined based on micromorphometric data, and unweighted pair group mean arithmetic clustering was performed. Four different groups were tested, and cultivation with sucrose and 50 and 75 μmol⋅m-2⋅s-1 irradiance was found to promote plantlet development and maximize similarity to plants cultivated in situ. The most important anatomical parameters in this study were the stomatal crypt aperture area and the crypt density. This study is of importance for the anatomical characterization of M. elliptica (Mart.) leaves, as it identifies plasticity as a function of in vitro culture conditions.