RETRACTED: Zhang et al. The Transcriptome and Metabolome Reveal the Mechanism by Which Melatonin Enhances Drought Tolerance in Platycrater argutae. Horticulturae 2025, 11, 1089

The journal retracts the article titled “The Transcriptome and Metabolome Reveal the Mechanism by Which Melatonin Enhances Drought Tolerance in Platycrater argutae” [1], cited above.

Following publication, the authors contacted the Editorial Office to report concerns regarding the study’s methodology and the overall reliability of the reported findings.

In accordance with the journal’s standard procedures, the Editorial Office and Editorial Board, in consultation with the authors, conducted an investigation into these concerns. The investigation determined that the expressed gene sets and the quantitative results of core metabolites reported in the article could not be reproduced, despite re-experimentation conducted by the authors. As a result, the findings of the study are considered unreliable. As a result, the Editorial Board has decided to retract this article as per MDPI’s retraction policy, https://www.mdpi.com/ethics#_bookmark30 (accessed on 8 January 2026).

This retraction was approved by the Editor-in-Chief of Horticulturae.

The authors agree to the retraction of this article and support this action in the interest of maintaining the integrity of the scientific record. The authors apologize for any inconvenience this has had for the journal and its readers.