Erratum to: J Mol Evol (2013) 76:332–342 DOI 10.1007/s00239-013-9562-3

Four coauthors of this previously published work, Taisiya A. Telegina, Yulia L. Vechtomova, Andrey A. Buglak and Mikhail S. Kritsky, wish to retract Fig. 5, Fig. 6 and Table 1. The retraction involves the part of the paper claiming to show that illumination of the solution of ADP in sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.8) in the presence of microspheres consisting of silicate and abiogenic conjugate of proteinoid with flavin and pteridine led to formation of ATP. We have no reason to believe that the other results and interpretations presented in our paper are in error. This retraction follows a thorough investigation performed at the Bach Institute of Biochemistry into the scientific misconduct of the final of the original authors of this work, Dr. Michael P. Kolesnikov, who is no longer a member of the Institute staff. The investigation found that Dr. Kolesnikov was solely responsible for the erroneous data presented in the cited figures and table that resulted in the unsubstantiated conclusions presented.