Protein kinase, membrane-associated tyrosine/threonine 1 is associated with the progression of colorectal cancer

The protein kinase, membrane-associated tyrosine/threonine 1 (PKMYT1) is known to inhibit precocious entry into mitosis by phosphorylating CDK1 at Thr14 and Tyr15 residues. However, the functional importance of PKMYT1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unknown. Thus, it is important to elucidate whether PKYMT1 is indispensable in the tumorigenesis of CRC. To investigate the functional importance of PKMYT1 in CRC tumorigenesis, PKMYT1 was knocked down in CRC cell lines such as SW480, SW620, HCT116 and HT29 by siRNA. PKMYT1-depleted CRC cells were analyzed to determine proliferation, migration, invasion and colony forming ability. In addition, 179 patient-derived samples were used to find the correlation of the expression of PKMYT1 with the prognosis of CRC patients. By siRNA-mediated loss of function of PKMYT1, we observed that proliferation, migration, invasion and colony forming ability of CRC cell lines were significantly impaired in the absence of PKMYT1 in vitro. Furthermore, by analyzing patient-derived samples, we revealed the association of PKMYT1 with the overall survival rate of CRC patients. These results indicated that PKMYT1 plays an essential oncogenic role in CRC and could serve as a good therapeutic target for the treatment of CRC.