Suppression of Cdh1 by RNA interference leads to an aberrant accumulation of APCCdh1 target proteins, such as cyclin A and B, the kinase AuroraB, PLK1, Skp2 and Cdc20, another APC/c co- activator.
More recently a study using transgenic/knockout mouse embryonic fibroblasts and human osteosarcoma cells (U2OS) has shown that FOXM1 regulates expression of a large array of G2/M-specific genes, such as Plk1, cyclin B2, Nek2 and CENPF, and plays an important role in maintenance of chromosomal segregation and genomic stability.
Examples and other names in common use include Cdc5, Cdc5p, Plk, PLK, Plk1, Plo1, POLO kinase, polo serine-threonine kinase, polo-like kinase, polo-like kinase 1, serine/threonine-specific Drosophila kinase polo, and STK21.
Volasertib (also known as BI 6727) is a small molecule inhibitor of the PLK1 (polo-like kinase 1) protein being developed by Boehringer Ingelheim for use as an anti-cancer agent.
This activity facilitates phosphorylation of important downstream kinetochore targets (such as tension-sensing 3F3/2 phospho-epitope) of Plk1, which is important for recruitment of spindle assembly checkpoint proteins such as Mad1 and proper kinetochore-microtubule attachment.