Evidence for calmodulin binding to the cytoplasmic domains of two C-CAM isoforms.

C-CAM (cell-CAM 105) is a transmembrane cell adhesion molecule, belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily. It is expressed in epithelia, vessel endothelia and leukocytes, and mediates intercellular adhesion in rat hepatocytes by homophilic binding. Two major isoforms (C-CAM1 and C-CAM2) that differ in their cytoplasmic domains occur. A previous study demonstrated that C-CAM can bind calmodulin in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner. In this study we have expressed the cytoplasmic domains of C-CAM1 and C-CAM2 in fusion proteins and measured calmodulin binding by a gel overlay assay, using 125I-labelled calmodulin. Our results indicate that the cytoplasmic domains of both C-CAM1 and C-CAM2 can bind calmodulin.