SUMMARYIt is well-established that in heart, both the L-type Ca 2ϩ channel and the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator Cl Ϫ channel are regulated by cAMP-dependent phosphorylation. However, it is not clear whether both of these channels are regulated in concert by protein kinase A (PKA) or whether there are mechanisms that independently control the phosphorylation of these two PKA targets. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of various protein phosphatase and protein kinase inhibitors on these two ionic currents (I Ca and I Cl ) in guinea pig ventricular myocytes to gain insight into these questions. We found that both the stimulation and washout of the effects of isoproterenol on I Cl are about twice as fast as the effects on I Ca , probably because the dephosphorylation reaction for I Cl is faster than that for I Ca . In contrast, inhibition of protein phosphatases with 10 M microcystin stimulated both I Ca and I Cl , but the stimulation of I Cl was much slower and smaller than the stimulation of I Ca . The effect of microcystin was inhibited by staurosporine (K i ϭ 171.5 and 161 nM for I Ca and I Cl , respectively), suggesting that the stimulation was due to a kinase. The kinase was not protein kinase C (PKC) because it was not inhibited by the specific pseudosubstrate inhibitor of PKC, PKC (19 -31) , and it was not PKA because it was not inhibited by adenosine 3Ј,5Ј-cyclic phosphorothioate. These results suggest that although both the Ca 2ϩ and Cl Ϫ channels are regulated by cAMP-dependent phosphorylation, another protein kinase may also regulate these channels, and the kinetics of the response of the channels to phosphorylation can be modulated independently by protein phosphatases.In mammalian cardiac myocytes, -adrenergic agonists regulate a variety of ionic currents, including I Ca and I Cl (1-3). Both currents are stimulated by cAMP-dependent phosphorylation via the G s /adenylyl cyclase/cAMP/PKA cascade, but both of these currents may be regulated by phosphorylation of more than a single phosphorylation site.In the case of I Ca , Tsien et al. (4) proposed that two different phosphorylation sites were responsible for the -adrenergic regulation of Ca 2ϩ channel availability (N) and channel gating (P o ). Support for this hypothesis has come from studies on rabbit ventricular myocytes in which different concentrations of okadaic acid selectively affect N and p o (5) and from our studies on frog ventricular myocytes in which the amplitude of I Ca is regulated by two phosphorylation sites that can be distinguished by the phosphatases that dephosphorylate them (6). One site is dephosphorylated by phosphatase 2A, and the other site is dephosphorylated by a phosphatase with a low sensitivity to the phosphatase inhibitors microcystin, okadaic acid, and calyculin A.The regulation of I Cl is even more complicated (3). The regulation of this channel, like that of the Ca 2ϩ channel, involves two phosphorylation sites. One site is dephosphorylated by protein phosphatase 2A, and t...