Maurocalcine is a scorpion venom toxin of 33 residues that bears a striking resemblance to the domain A of the dihydropyridine voltage-dependent calcium channel type 1.1 (Ca v 1.1) subunit. This domain belongs to the II-III loop of Ca v 1.1, which is implicated in excitation-contraction coupling. Besides the structural homology, maurocalcine also modulates RyR1 channel activity in a manner akin to a synthetic peptide of domain A. Because of these similarities, we hypothesized that maurocalcine and domain A may bind onto an identical region(s) of RyR1. Using a set of RyR1 fragments, we demonstrate that peptide A and maurocalcine bind onto two discrete RyR1 regions: fragments 3 and 7 encompassing residues 1021-1631 and 3201-3661, respectively. The binding onto fragment 7 is of greater importance and was thus further investigated. We found that the amino acid region 3351-3507 of RyR1 (fragment 7.2) is sufficient for these interactions. In skeletal muscle cells, the activation of the dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR) 1 induces, through the ryanodine receptor (RyR1), a massive release of the calcium stored in the sarcoplasmic reticulum. The bi-directional communication between RyR1 and DHPR (i.e. orthograde and retrograde signals) has been shown to be enabled by the physical interactions of the two Ca 2ϩ channels (1-4). The DHPR ␣ 1 subunit forms the pore region, carries the voltage sensitivity of the channel, and is also directly involved in the functional coupling of the DHPR with RyR1 (2, 5). Indeed, the cytoplasmic loop linking domains II and III of the ␣ 1 subunit has been proposed to be responsible for the mechanical coupling between the DHPR and the RyR1 (6, 7). Within this loop, two regions (domains A and C) have been shown to regulate ryanodine binding and channel gating of RyR1 in vitro (8).RyR1 activity is regulated in vitro by a number of chemical compounds such as ATP, Ca 2ϩ , Mg 2ϩ , and proteins such as calmodulin and FK506-binding protein (FKBP12) (9, 10). Nevertheless, due to (i) the extremely large size of RyR1, (ii) the small number of high affinity effectors, and (iii) the absence of atomic resolution structure, the mapping of the functional sites of RyR1 is still far from completion. As part of the search for molecules able to strongly modify RyR1 properties, toxins isolated from scorpion venoms have been described as the most active effectors of RyR1. Among them, imperatoxin A and maurocalcine (MCa) have been extensively characterized both in terms of their effects on RyR1 and their three-dimensional structure (11-16). These two toxins present some amino acid sequence homology with the domain A of DHPR ␣ 1 subunit, and structural studies strongly suggest that their -sheet structure could mimic that of the domain A (15, 16). In a previous work, we demonstrated that nanomolar concentrations of MCa induces a dramatic conformational change of RyR1, witnessed by the increase in [ 3 H]ryanodine binding (7-fold) and the induction of long lasting channel openings (13,14). The observed homologies in amino...