IntroductionIntracellular Ca 2+ dynamics is a key factor in cellular signaling and physiology (for a review, see Bootman et al., 2001). In particular, the system of endomembranes that forms the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum plays a vital role in Ca 2+ handling in most eukaryots (Carafoli and Klee, 1999). In this compartment two families of intracellular Ca 2+ release channels have been characterized: the ryanodine receptors (RyR) and the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors (IP3R) (Nori et al., 1993). Besides these, there is evidence for two more intracellular Ca 2+ releasing channels: the NAAPD and the sphingolipid receptors (Petersen and Cancela, 1999;Cancela, 2001). Ca 2+ re-uptake by the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum is mediated by the thapsigargin-sensitive sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca 2+ ATPase (SERCA), whose structure and function has been studied extensively in mammalian muscle systems (MacLennan, 1990).The development of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is amenable to multidisciplinary analyses (for a review, see Campos-Ortega and Hartenstein, 1997) and is thus a powerful system in which to examine the role of these proteins in intracellular Ca 2+ homeostasis. In this organism, a single RyR gene with 26 exons, dry, and a single IP3R gene with 12 exons, dip, exist and have been genetically characterized (Takeshima et al., 1994;Sinha and Hasan, 1999). In contrast, RyR and IP3R in vertebrates are coded by at least three different genes that, due to alternative splicing, present a large number of isoforms (Rubtsov and Batrukova, 1997;Marks, 1997). A similar situation occurs with the thapsigargin-sensitive Ca 2+ ATPase. In D. melanogaster only one gene coding for this P-type ATPase has been detected, CaP60A (Magyar et al., 1995); whereas in vertebrates, at least three different isoforms of this Ca 2+ ATPase have been reported (Misquitta et al., 1999).Despite extensive genetic and molecular biology data for these proteins, there is a dearth of basic biochemical information on the Drosophila RyR, IP3R and SERCA proteins. In order to reap the benefit from a genetic and molecular biology tractable model organism with single RyR, IP 3 R and SERCA proteins, we characterize here these important molecules using Drosophila native endomembranes.