Functional independency between catalytic activity and subcellular targeting of Polo-like kinase-1: Phenotypes of ectopic overexpression of various mutants

The mammalian polo-like kinase-1 (Plk1) plays key role in the progression of the M-phase. As cells enter the M-phase, Plk1 is phosphorylated by an upstream kinase on Thr-210 in N-terminal region, which is essential for Plk1 activation. In addition to catalytic activation, the subcellular localization is also an important task for Plk1, and the C-terminal polo-boxes are responsible for Plk1 targeting. Although both catalytic activation and targeting might be essential and work concurrently, it is still unclear which process precedes the other in mitotic progression, and which is more essential for the function of Plk1 through the M-phase. In order to investigate this mechanism, this study introduced several point mutations in the catalytic and polo-box domains, and overexpressed these constructs in HeLa cells. Although the cellular effects by ectopic expression were different in the cells containing various Plk1 constructs, phosphorylation itself, not the catalytic activity, was found to be important for the progression of the M-phase. Plk1 phosphorylation was also responsible for targeting by polo-box, and compensated for the polo-box mutation. These results suggested that Plk1 is phosphorylated in the starting M-phase, and this phosphorylation induces polo-box targeting through a possible conformational change. In this situation, catalytic activation does not appear to be a critical factor for the function of Plk1.