Recoverin is a calcium-dependent inhibitor of rhodopsin kinase. It prevents premature phosphorylation of rhodopsin until the opening of cGMP-gated ion channels causes a decrease in intracellular calcium levels, signaling completion of the light response. This calcium depletion causes release of recoverin from rhodopsin kinase, freeing the kinase to phosphorylate rhodopsin and to terminate the light response. Previous studies have shown that recoverin is able to bind to a region at the N terminus of rhodopsin kinase. In this study we map this interaction interface, showing that residues 1-15 of the kinase form the interaction site for recoverin binding. Mutation of hydrophobic residues in this region have the greatest effect on the interaction. The periodic nature of these residues suggests that they lie along one face of an amphipathic helix. We show that this region is essential for recoverin binding, as a catalytically active kinase lacking these residues is unable to bind recoverin. In addition, we show that neither the N-terminal deletion nor the presence of recoverin inhibits the overall catalytic activity of the kinase, as measured by light-independent autophosphorylation. Finally, we observe that a kinase mutant lacking the N-terminal recoverin binding site is unable to phosphorylate light-activated rhodopsin. Taken together, these data support a model in which recoverin prevents rhodopsin phosphorylation by sterically blocking a region of kinase essential for its interaction with rhodopsin, thereby preventing recognition of rhodopsin as a kinase substrate.Light-dependent activation of rhodopsin in rod cells initiates a G protein-mediated signaling cascade that hyperpolarises the rod and inhibits glutamate release at its synaptic terminal. Inactivation of rhodopsin is essential for termination of this signaling event and for resetting rod cells to receive future stimuli. The inactivation process depends on phosphorylation of the C terminus of light-activated rhodopsin through the action of rhodopsin kinase (1, 2). The subsequent binding of arrestin to this phosphorylated peptide, and to cytoplasmic loops of the receptor, blocks access of the G protein, transducin, and prevents further signaling (3).Rhodopsin kinase is one of seven G protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRKs) 2 (4). These contain a common domain structure for the N-terminal 520 residues and a divergent C-terminal region (5). Rhodopsin kinase (also known as GRK1) shows many similarities to the more ubiquitous -adrenergic receptor kinase (GRK2), sharing two major domains, the N-terminal regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) homology domain and the classical bilobal catalytic domain. The two kinases have 34% sequence identity, with 44% identity in the catalytic domain (6). The crystal structure of GRK2 in complex with G protein subunits, G␥, shows the structure of these major domains (7). The N-terminal RGS homology domain comprises nine ␣-helices, spanning residues 30 -185, and two additional ␣-helices from the C terminus of the protein (res...