Solution structure of plant calmodulin in the absence and presence of targets: Implications on its structure and function

Introduction Calmodulin (CaM) is a ubiquitous multifunctional Ca signal receptor in eukaryotes that participates in most of the important signaling pathways in cells. It plays a key role in transducing Ca signals to different physiological effects. In order to elucidate the functional mechanism of CaM, structural and biological studies have been carried out. The three-dimensional structure of potato CaM (PCM6) has been recently reported [1]. This structure is different from animal CaMs in the central helix region. In the present work, SAXS has been applied to characterize the solution structure of PCM6 in the absence and presence of a target.