Estrogen receptor-related receptor gamma (ERRgamma) is a member of the nuclear receptor family of transcriptional activators. To date, the target genes and physiological functions of ERRgamma are not well understood. In the current study, we identify that Plk2 is a novel target of ERRgamma. Northern blot analysis showed that overexpression of ERRgamma induced Plk2 expression in cancer cell lines. ERRgamma activated the Plk2 gene promoter, and deletion and mutational analysis of the Plk2 promoter revealed that the ERRgamma-response region is located between nucleotides (nt) -2327 and -2229 and -441 and -432 (relative to the transcriptional start site at +1). Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis demonstrated that ERRgamma binds directly to the Plk2 promoter. Overexpression of ERRgamma in the presence of the mitotic inhibitor nocodazole significantly decreased apoptosis, and induced S-phase cell cycle progression through the induction of Plk2 expression. Taken together, these results demonstrated that Plk2 is a novel target of ERRgamma, and suggest that this interaction is crucial for cancer cell proliferation.