The high-conductance intracellular calcium (Ca <sup>2+ </sup>) channel RyR2 is essential for the coupling of excitation and contraction in cardiac muscle. Among various modulators, calmodulin (CaM) regulates RyR2 in a Ca <sup>2+ </sup>-dependent mann ...
The high-conductance intracellular calcium (Ca 2+ ) channel RyR2 is essential for the coupling of excitation and contraction in cardiac muscle. Among various modulators, calmodulin (CaM) regulates RyR2 in a Ca 2+ -dependent manner. Here we reveal the regulatory mechanism by which porcine RyR2 is modulated by human CaM through the structural determination of RyR2 under eight conditions. Apo-CaM and Ca 2+ -CaM bind to distinct but overlapping sites in an elongated cleft formed by the handle, helical and central domains. The shift in CaM-binding sites on RyR2 is controlled by Ca 2+ binding to CaM, rather than to RyR2. Ca 2+ -CaM induces rotations and intradomain shifts of individual central domains, resulting in pore closure of the PCB95 and Ca 2+ -activated channel. By contrast, the pore of the ATP, caffeine and Ca 2+ -activated channel remains open in the presence of Ca 2+ -CaM, which suggests that Ca 2+ -CaM is one of the many competing modulators of RyR2 gating.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.,Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. nyan@princeton.edu.,Technology Center for Protein Sciences, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.,Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. nyan@princeton.edu.,Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. gds13@tsinghua.org.cn.,Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. swchen@ucalgary.ca.,Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.