GoKawiilNature Communications retracts CCR5 frameshifting study over splicing artefact
The editors have retracted a paper claiming that a CCR5 mRNA sequence drives programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting regulated by miRNAs and nonsense-mediated decay. A re-investigation found the original dual luciferase reporter contained a cryptic splice site that produced artefactual splice variants mistaken for frameshifting activity. When tested with an improved reporter lacking that splice site, the CCR5 sequence showed no detectable frameshifting, a result independently replicated by at least two other research groups.