Adult skeletal muscles retain an adaptive capacity to switch between slow-and fast-twitch properties that largely depend on motoneuron activity. The NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells) family of calcium-dependent transcription factors has been implicated in the up-regulation of genes encoding slow contractile proteins in response to slow-patterned motoneuron depolarization. Here, we demonstrate an unexpected, novel function of NFATc1 in slow-twitch muscles. Using the troponin I fast (TnIf) intronic regulatory element (FIRE), we identified sequences that down-regulate its function selectively in response to patterns of electrical activity that mimic slow motoneuron firing. A bona fide NFAT binding site in the TnIf FIRE was identified by site-directed mutations and by electrophoretic mobility and supershift assays. The activity-dependent transcriptional repression of FIRE is mediated through this NFAT site and, importantly, its mutation did not alter the up-regulation of TnIf transcription by fast-patterned activity. siRNA-mediated knockdown of NFATc1 in adult muscles resulted in ectopic activation of the FIRE in the slow soleus, without affecting enhancer activity in the fast extensor digitorum longus muscle. These findings demonstrate that NFAT can function as a repressor of fast contractile genes in slow muscles and they exemplify how an activity pattern can increase or decrease the expression of distinct contractile genes in a use-dependent manner as to enhance phenotypic differences among fiber types or induce adaptive changes in adult muscles.exercise ͉ fiber type ͉ plasticity ͉ troponin T he contractile and metabolic properties of skeletal muscles are determined by both intrinsic and extrinsic cues during development and remain plastic in the adult. Motoneuron and muscle diversity is apparent before innervation and during perinatal development (1-5). Between the first and second postnatal week of rodent development, as polyinnervation is retracted and gap junctions between motoneurons are reduced, motor units begin to depolarize muscles with ''slow'' (tonic, low frequency) and ''fast'' (phasic, high frequency) activity patterns typical of adult motoneurons (6, 7). While activity regulates the expression of contractile proteins that determine the slow and fast twitch properties of adult skeletal muscle fibers, adult muscles remain plastic. Stimulation of fast-twitch muscles with slow-patterned activity causes a fast-toslow fiber-type switching in preexisting fibers, that requires both the up-regulation of slow and repression of fast contractile proteins (8,9).Changes in the contractile properties of skeletal muscles during development and in response to activity occur largely at the transcriptional level (10). Based on studies in neurons and nonneuronal cells, it appears that important information for deciphering patterned activity depends on the location, timing, and dynamics of Ca 2ϩ transients in the cell (11). For example, during T cell lymphocyte activation sustained increases in Ca 2ϩ levels aug...