Calmodulin (CaM) is a ubiquitous Ca2؉ sensor protein that plays an important role in regulating a large number of Ca 2؉ channels, including the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (IP 3 R). Despite many efforts, the exact mechanism by which CaM regulates the IP 3 R still remains elusive. Here we show, using unidirectional 45 (17). This can be explained by the large conformational change that the IP 3 R undergoes in the presence of Ca 2ϩ and which may be necessary for CaM action. This interaction may provide a tonic regulation of IP 3 R activity and can explain the low sensitivity of the IP 3 R in neuronal tissues where CaM is highly expressed. The role of the Ca 2ϩ -dependent CaM-binding site in the regulatory domain, however, still remains to be elucidated.CaM-binding sites have not merely been identified as regulatory sites but have also recently been implicated in inter-and intrasubunit interactions. For example, the CaM-binding domain of the RyR1 modulates channel activity by at least two mechanisms: 1) by direct binding of CaM and 2) by forming a bridge between two different regions on the RyR1. Peptides of the RyR1 were used to demonstrate that the CaM-binding region is indeed directly involved in intersubunit interactions between the RyR subunits (18). In the case of small conductance K ϩ channels, CaM is involved in intersubunit interactions. Functional small conductance K ϩ channels are heteromeric complexes with CaM, which is constitutively associated with the ␣-subunits in a Ca 2ϩ -independent manner (19). In this study, we investigated whether endogenously bound CaM is essential for IP 3 R functioning. To test this hypothesis, we measured IP 3 R activity in the presence of different synthetic peptides corresponding to the CaM-binding region of myosin light-chain kinase (MLCK), which has a very high affinity for CaM, and in the presence of peptides corresponding to CaM-binding sites of the IP 3 R and other