The regulation of the multifunctional calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) by serine/ threonine protein phosphatases has been extensively studied in neuronal cells; however, this regulation has not been investigated previously in fibroblasts. We cloned a cDNA from SV40-transformed human fibroblasts that shares 80% homology to a rat calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase phosphatase that encodes a PPM1F protein. By using extracts from transfected cells, PPM1F, but not a mutant (R326A) in the conserved catalytic domain, was found to dephosphorylate in vitro a peptide corresponding to the autoinhibitory region of CaMKII. Further analyses demonstrated that PPM1F specifically dephosphorylates the phospho-Thr-286 in autophosphorylated CaMKII substrate and thus deactivates the CaMKII in vitro. Coimmunoprecipitation of CaMKII with PPM1F indicates that the two proteins can interact intracellularly. Binding of PPM1F to CaMKII involves multiple regions and is not dependent on intact phosphatase activity. Furthermore, overexpression of PPM1F in fibroblasts caused a reduction in the CaMKII-specific phosphorylation of the known substrate vimentin(Ser-82) following induction of the endogenous CaM kinase. These results identify PPM1F as a CaM kinase phosphatase within fibroblasts, although it may have additional functions intracellularly since it has been presented elsewhere as POPX2 and hFEM-2. We conclude that PPM1F, possibly together with the other previously described protein phosphatases PP1 and PP2A, can regulate the activity of CaMKII. Moreover, because PPM1F dephosphorylates the critical autophosphorylation site of CaMKII, we propose that this phosphatase plays a key role in the regulation of the kinase intracellularly.The dynamic interactions between kinases and phosphatases play a critical role in the regulation of cellular processes. Because of their extensive involvement in calcium signaling (1), the multifunctional Ca 2ϩ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) 1 and the protein phosphatases that interact with it have been the focus of several studies. In response to Ca 2ϩ -mobilizing agents, CaMKII is autophosphorylated (at Thr-286 for CaMKII␣) generating a kinase with Ca 2ϩ -independent activity (autonomous activity); however, this activity rapidly declines on removal of the stimulus (2-4), suggesting that protein phosphatases may contribute to the regulation of CaM kinase. Dephosphorylation of Thr-286 by the serine/threonine protein phosphatases PP1 (5), PP2A (6), and PP2C (7) has been shown to occur in vitro, and the phosphatase(s) responsible for regulating the endogenous CaMKII activity have been identified in a variety of cell types (7-15).Because CaMKII comprises up to 2% of the total protein in some regions of the brain, multiple investigations into the regulation of this kinase by phosphatases have been done with tissue from the central nervous system (7-12, 15). In the rat forebrain, the predominant phosphatase varies with the distinct cellular compartment; PP2A dephosphor...