The motor protein myosin in association with actin transduces chemical free energy in ATP into work in the form of actin translation against an opposing force. Mediating the actomyosin interaction in myosin is an actin binding site distributed among several peptides on the myosin surface including surface loops contributing to affinity and actin regulation of myosin ATPase. A structured surface loop on -cardiac myosin, the cardiac or C-loop, was recently demonstrated to affect myosin ATPase and was indirectly implicated in the actomyosin interaction. The C-loop is a conserved feature of all myosin isoforms with crystal structures, suggesting that it is an essential part of the core energy transduction machinery. It is shown here that proteolytic digestion of the C-loop in -cardiac myosin eliminates actin-activated myosin ATPase and reduces actomyosin affinity in rigor more than 100-fold. Studies of C-loop function in smooth muscle myosin were also undertaken using sitedirected mutagenesis. Mutagenesis of a single charged residue in the C-loop of smooth muscle myosin alters actomyosin affinity and doubles myosin in vitro motility and actin-activated ATPase velocities, thereby involving a charged region of the loop in the actomyosin interaction. It appears likely that the C-loop is an essential electrostatic binding site for actin involved in modulation of actomyosin affinity and regulation of actomyosin ATPase velocity.The motor protein myosin is an ATPase and an actin-binding protein transducing ATP free energy into work. In muscle, myosin, actin, and ATP constitute the unitary work producer. The cyclical interaction of these components, a sequence of states each characterized as a static relation between the proteins and an intermediate in the degradation of ATP, is a contraction cycle. In a contraction cycle, myosin hydrolyzes ATP in its active site and forms a weak association with actin at a separate actin binding site. Release of phosphate from the active site initiates strong binding to actin and a large conformation change in myosin that produces work in the form of actin translation against a load. Several solved crystal structures represent intermediates in ATP hydrolysis and define myosin conformation changes in the absence of actin (1-6). Presently, we lack a detailed understanding of actomyosin structure and in particular how the elements making up the actomyosin interface contribute to mutual affinity, actin regulation of phosphate release, and the ability of myosin-bound nucleotide to modulate actomyosin affinity.Myosin consists of a globular head domain containing the enzymatic portion of the molecule and a tail involved in filament assembly. The globular head separated from its tail portion is called subfragment 1 (S1). 1 S1 interacts with filamentous actin (F-actin) consisting of polymerized actin monomers. An atomic model for F-actin built from monomeric actin crystal structures (7-9) satisfies x-ray diffraction data restraints (10) and is consistent with electron microscopic imagery (11). In...