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The three-dimensional solution structure of the complex between calcium-bound calmodulin (Ca²⁺-CaM) and a 26-residue synthetic peptide comprising the CaM binding domain (residues 577 to 602) of skeletal muscle myosin light chain kinase, has been determined using multidimensional heteronuclear filtered and separated nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The two domains of CaM (residues 6 to 73 and 83 to 146) remain essentially unchanged upon complexation. The long central helix (residues 65 to 93), however, which connects the two domains in the crystal structure of Ca²⁺-CaM, is disrupted into two helices connected by a long flexible loop (residues 74 to 82), thereby enabling the two domains to clamp residues 3 to 21 of the bound peptide, which adopt a helical conformation. The overall structure of the complex is globular, approximating an ellipsoid of dimensions 47 by 32 by 30 angstroms …