{"entity":{"id":"plk1","kind":"target","name":"PLK1","aka":["polo like kinase 1","Serine/threonine-protein kinase PLK1"],"tldr":"PLK1 (Serine/threonine-protein kinase PLK1) is a protein kinase, an enzyme that switches other proteins on by adding phosphate groups. The public catalogues list it as a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Glioma & glioblastoma.","summary":"Serine/threonine-protein kinase that performs several important functions throughout M phase of the cell cycle, including the regulation of centrosome maturation and spindle assembly, the removal of cohesins from chromosome arms, the inactivation of anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) inhibitors, and the regulation of mitotic exit and cytokinesis. Polo-like kinase proteins act by binding and phosphorylating proteins that are already phosphorylated on a specific motif recognised by the POLO box domains. Phosphorylates BORA, BUB1B/BUBR1, CCNB1, CDC25C, CEP55, ECT2, ERCC6L, FBXO5/EMI1, FOXM1, KIF20A/MKLP2, CENPU, NEDD1, NINL, NPM1, NUDC, PKMYT1/MYT1, KIZ, MRE11, PPP1R12A/MYPT1, POLQ, PRC1, RACGAP1/CYK4, RAD51, RHNO1, SGO1, STAG2/SA2, TEX14, TOPORS, p73/TP73, TPT1, WEE1 and HNRNPU.\n\nCIViC holds 1 clinical evidence item and 0 assertions across 1 variant.","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:9077","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:9077"},{"label":"UniProt P53350","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P53350/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 5347","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/5347"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000166851","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000166851"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["civic"],"cancers":["glioblastoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":["mitotic-spindle-checkpoint","myc"],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: CIViC holds 1 clinical evidence items on its variants. Evidence tier \"clinical-evidence\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"PLK1","role":["biomarker"],"evidenceTier":"clinical-evidence","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:9077","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:9077","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt P53350","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P53350/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene PLK1","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/4337","note":"1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases: Glioblastoma (GraphQL API, CC0)"}],"specificity":"broadly-expressed","distribution":"one-type","specificityNote":"Broadly expressed or essential: HPA lists PLK1 among essential proteins; a medicine acting on the wild-type protein would expose normal tissue too. HPA PLK1: RNA tissue enhanced (bone marrow 30 nTPM, lymphoid tissue 41 nTPM, testis 32 nTPM); blood lineage lineage enriched (T-cells 6 nTPM); high antibody staining in 1 normal tissue. Distribution: 1 cancer family in the corpus carries a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Brain and spinal cord tumours (all types)); Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (Rule 7 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas PLK1 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000166851-PLK1/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000166851 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000166851/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:9077","ensembl":"ENSG00000166851","uniprot":"P53350","entrez":"5347","firstDescribed":1993,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Lake R.J. et al, Mol. Cell. Biol, 1993, \"Cell cycle- and terminal differentiation-associated regulation of the mouse mRNA encoding a conserved mitotic protein kinase\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7902533/","biology":"Serine/threonine-protein kinase that performs several important functions throughout M phase of the cell cycle, including the regulation of centrosome maturation and spindle assembly, the removal of cohesins from chromosome arms, the inactivation of anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) inhibitors, and the regulation of mitotic exit and cytokinesis. Polo-like kinase proteins act by binding and phosphorylating proteins that are already phosphorylated on a specific motif recognised by the POLO box domains. Phosphorylates BORA, BUB1B/BUBR1, CCNB1, CDC25C, CEP55, ECT2, ERCC6L, FBXO5/EMI1, FOXM1, KIF20A/MKLP2, CENPU, NEDD1, NINL, NPM1, NUDC, PKMYT1/MYT1, KIZ, MRE11, PPP1R12A/MYPT1, POLQ, PRC1, RACGAP1/CYK4, RAD51, RHNO1, SGO1, STAG2/SA2, TEX14, TOPORS, p73/TP73, TPT1, WEE1 and HNRNPU. Plays a key role in centrosome functions and the assembly of bipolar spindles by phosphorylating KIZ, NEDD1 and NINL. NEDD1 phosphorylation promotes subsequent targeting of the gamma-tubulin ring complex (gTuRC) to the centrosome, an important step for spindle formation. Phosphorylation of NINL component of the centrosome leads to NINL dissociation from other centrosomal proteins. Location: Nucleus; Chromosome, centromere, kinetochore; Cytoplasm, cytoskeleton, microtubule organizing center, centrosome; Cytoplasm, cytoskeleton, spindle (UniProt). Locus 16p12.2 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Glioma & glioblastoma: CIViC evidence names this disease"],"targetClass":"kinase","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/plk1/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"civic","kind":"collection","name":"CIViC","route":"/collections/civic/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"glioblastoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Glioma & glioblastoma","route":"/cancers/glioblastoma/"}],"pathway":[{"id":"mitotic-spindle-checkpoint","kind":"pathway","name":"Mitosis & the spindle assembly checkpoint","route":"/pathways/mitotic-spindle-checkpoint/"},{"id":"myc","kind":"pathway","name":"MYC","route":"/pathways/myc/"}],"drug":[{"id":"onvansertib","kind":"drug","name":"Onvansertib","route":"/drugs/onvansertib/"}],"target":[{"id":"bub1","kind":"target","name":"BUB1","route":"/targets/bub1/"}],"term":[{"id":"checkpoint","kind":"term","name":"Checkpoint (two meanings)","route":"/terms/checkpoint/"}]}}