Expression of Concern: CENP-C binds the alpha-satellite DNA in vivo at specific centromere domains.

This Expression of Concern relates to J. Cell Sci. (2002) 115, 2317-2327 (doi:10.1242/jcs.115.11.2317).A reader contacted Journal of Cell Science with concerns about a potential image duplication in Fig. 2A of this article, which was also highlighted on the PubPeer website. Possible duplication was highlighted for the α-sat (1, 5, 19) and α-sat (X) total DNA dilution series dot blots in Fig. 2A.We contacted the authors of the article to request the original data for this experiment. We were informed by Professor Giovanni Perini, co-first author of the article, that the corresponding author, Professor Giuliano Della Valle, retired in 2010 and passed away in 2016. Consequently, the data and laboratory records relating to Fig. 2A are no longer available.Professor Perini informed us that he cannot exclude the possibility that the α-sat (1, 5, 19) and α-sat (X) total DNA dilution series dot blots in Fig. 2A are duplicated images. However, Professor Perini also highlighted that the legend for Fig. 2A states that the filters were sequentially hybridised with the alpha-satellite probes, raising the possibility that the similarities between these two dot blots, which are shown for semi-quantitative assessment of the corresponding ChIP dot blots, could be the result of rehybridisation of the same filter with the different probes. The authors state that the major conclusions of the article are not affected by this issue.Because the original data and records for this experiment are not available, we are unable to determine whether Fig. 2A shows duplicated data for the α-sat (1, 5, 19) and α-sat (X) total DNA dilution series. The journal is therefore publishing this Expression of Concern to make readers aware of this issue.