High impact information on polo

• Present in organisms ranging from yeast to man, homologues of the Drosophila Polo kinase control multiple stages of cell division [1].
• polo encodes a protein kinase homolog required for mitosis in Drosophila [2].
• This can be rescued by addition of phosphorylated Asp or active Polo kinase [3].
• We have found that one of these is Polo, a protein kinase known to regulate several aspects of cell division including centrosome maturation and function [4].
• We discuss these findings in respect to conserved functions for the Polo-like kinases in regulating progression through M phase, including the earliest events of cytokinesis [5].

Biological context of polo

• As Polo-like kinase was shown to colocalize and coimmunoprecipitate with Chk2 [Tsvetkov et al., J. Biol. Chem. 278 (2003) 8468-8475] in mammals, these observations suggest that polo might be a key target of Dmchk2 in regulating mitotic entry in response to DNA damage or replication block [6].
• The localization of Polo at the kinetochore and the mid-zone of the central spindle together with the phenotypes of polo mutants point to functions at the metaphase to anaphase transition and in cytokinesis [7].
• In this article, we report that the cell cycle regulatory kinase Polo binds to BicD protein during oogenesis [8].
• Interaction between Polo and BicD proteins links oocyte determination and meiosis control in Drosophila [8].
• Consistent with the previously reported localization of Polo kinase, Plk1-GFP was strongly localized to centrosomes and recruited to the centromeric regions of condensing chromosomes during early mitosis [9].

Associations of polo with chemical compounds

• Polo, the founding member of the family of polo-like kinases (Plks) was identified in a Drosophila screen for mutants affecting spindle pole behavior.(1) Several mutants showed defects at their spindle poles and were hence named after the magnetic poles of the earth or geo-magnetic phenomena associated with them, like Polo and Aurora [10].
• The Polo family of kinases is distinct from other serine/threonine kinases in that they all contain a polo-box sequence motif in their non-catalytic C-terminal domain [11].

Physical interactions of polo

• Map205 can stabilize Polo and inhibit its cellular activity in vivo [12].

Other interactions of polo

• Third, Klp3A and Polo, two markers of the wild-type central spindle are also found around the pointed end of the mutant cones [13].
• Genes for the mitotic kinases Polo and Aurora A were first identified in Drosophila through screens of maternal effect lethal mutations for defects in spindle pole behaviour [7].

References