On 2015 Mar 24, Amanda Capes-Davis commented:

Thank you Radoslaw - I very much appreciate this clarification from you and the other authors of the article.

On 2015 Mar 23, Radosław Stachowiak commented:

Thank you for your vigillance and comments. To correct this important issue we have published Erratum to the article: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00284-015-0803-0?sa_campaign=email/event/articleAuthor/onlineFirst

On 2015 Feb 26, Amanda Capes-Davis commented:

Thank you to the authors for commenting on this paper in a feature article published in Science at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6225/938.full. I appreciate the authors' comments in clarifying why these cell lines were used.

On 2015 Feb 13, Amanda Capes-Davis commented:

The three cell lines used here - INT-407, HEp-2 and HeLa - are all HeLa. INT-407 and HEp-2 were clearly shown to be cross-contaminated by HeLa in the 1960s and 1970s. INT-407 and HEp-2 continue to be used widely today, by scientists who may not be not aware that these cell lines are misidentified.

In my view, three cell lines are used here to indicate that the effect of Lmo0171 on cell morphology has broad impact across different cell types. But the results described here may be specific to HeLa cells and have no impact beyond that culture and cell type (human cervical adenocarcinoma).

I would urge authors to be more transparent regarding the cell line information that they provide to readers. The authors here list cell bank catalogue numbers in their Materials and Methods section. When you look at the catalogue entry for each cell line, the entries clearly state that INT-407 and HEp-2 are HeLa. The authors of this paper are therefore aware of that information.

In a letter to Nature back in 2000 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10667765), Stacey and other authors urged the research community to take action to improve our approach to misidentified cell lines. They recommend that all misidentified cell lines should be listed with the contaminant in brackets - for example, INT-407 (HeLa) and HEp-2 (HeLa). Taking that approach would make it much clearer to the reader that these three cell lines are all HeLa.

The International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC) curates a database of known misidentified cell lines. Readers are welcome to refer to the database as a resource when naming or using cell lines. The database can be found at http://iclac.org/databases/cross-contaminations/.

On 2015 Feb 13, Amanda Capes-Davis commented:

The three cell lines used here - INT-407, HEp-2 and HeLa - are all HeLa. INT-407 and HEp-2 were clearly shown to be cross-contaminated by HeLa in the 1960s and 1970s. INT-407 and HEp-2 continue to be used widely today, by scientists who may not be not aware that these cell lines are misidentified.

In my view, three cell lines are used here to indicate that the effect of Lmo0171 on cell morphology has broad impact across different cell types. But the results described here may be specific to HeLa cells and have no impact beyond that culture and cell type (human cervical adenocarcinoma).

I would urge authors to be more transparent regarding the cell line information that they provide to readers. The authors here list cell bank catalogue numbers in their Materials and Methods section. When you look at the catalogue entry for each cell line, the entries clearly state that INT-407 and HEp-2 are HeLa. The authors of this paper are therefore aware of that information.

In a letter to Nature back in 2000 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10667765), Stacey and other authors urged the research community to take action to improve our approach to misidentified cell lines. They recommend that all misidentified cell lines should be listed with the contaminant in brackets - for example, INT-407 (HeLa) and HEp-2 (HeLa). Taking that approach would make it much clearer to the reader that these three cell lines are all HeLa.

The International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC) curates a database of known misidentified cell lines. Readers are welcome to refer to the database as a resource when naming or using cell lines. The database can be found at http://iclac.org/databases/cross-contaminations/.

On 2015 Feb 26, Amanda Capes-Davis commented:

Thank you to the authors for commenting on this paper in a feature article published in Science at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6225/938.full. I appreciate the authors' comments in clarifying why these cell lines were used.

On 2015 Mar 23, Radosław Stachowiak commented:

Thank you for your vigillance and comments. To correct this important issue we have published Erratum to the article: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00284-015-0803-0?sa_campaign=email/event/articleAuthor/onlineFirst