Tools to discriminate between targets of CK2 vs PLK2/PLK3 acidophilic kinases.

While the great majority of Ser/Thr protein kinases are basophilic or proline directed, a tiny minority is acidophilic. The most striking example of such "acidophilic" kinases is CK2, whose sites are specified by numerous acidic residues surrounding the target one. However PLK2 and PLK3 kinases recognize an acidic consensus similar to CK2 when tested on peptide libraries. Here we describe optimal buffer conditions for PLK2 and 3 kinase activity assays and tools such as using GTP as a phosphate donor and the specific inhibitors CX-4945 and BI 2536, useful to discriminate between acidic phosphosites generated either by CK2 or by PLK2/PLK3.