Retracted: Overexpression of Bacterial mtlD Gene in Peanut Improves Drought Tolerance through Accumulation of Mannitol

The Scientific World Journal has retracted the article titled “Overexpression of Bacterial mtlD Gene in Peanut Improves Drought Tolerance through Accumulation of Mannitol” [1]. As raised on PubPeer, there is image duplication in Figure 2. Further issues were found with the figures and reporting, including when compared with the thesis of the first author [2]. The authors responded and provided some of the original figures and data, which are included as supplementary materials. The authors offered to correct the figures, and they do not agree with retraction. However, their response did not satisfy our concerns and the Editorial Board recommended retraction. A summary of the major concerns is as follows: Two of the panels in each of Figures 2(e) and 2(f) are identical, i.e., panel 3 of Figure 2(e) is the same as panel 1 of Figure 2(f) and panel 4 of Figure 2(e) is the same as panel 3 of Figure 2(f). The authors say the figure duplication was inadvertent. The same figure duplication also appeared in Figure 4.3 in the thesis. However, the left-hand panels in Figure 4.3A (thesis) and Figure 2(e) (article) are not the same. The authors disputed this and provided a figure they say was from the thesis, which they say shows the left-hand panels in Figure 2(e) are the same as those in Figure 4.3A in the thesis, but the thesis does not show the same image as the authors provided to us. The distribution of insignificant digits (i.e., digits unimportant to the measured value) is expected to be uniform [3]. The rightmost values in the data underlying Table 3 have a significantly nonuniform distribution.