Smooth Muscle thin filaments have been reconstituted in muscle ghost fibers by incorporation of smooth muscle actin, tropomyosin and caldesmon. For the first time, rotation of subdomain-1 and changes of its mobility in IAEDANS-labeled actin during the ATP hydrolysis cycle simulated using nucleotides and non-hydrolysable ATP analogs have been demonstrated directly. Binding of caldesmon altered the mobility and inhibited the rotation of actin subdomain-1 during the transition from AM**.ADP.Pi to AM state, resulting in inhibition of both strong and weak-binding intermediate states. These new results imply that regulation of actomyosin interaction by caldesmon during the ATPase cycle is fulfilled via the inhibition of actin subdomain-1 rotation toward the periphery of the thin filament, which decreases the area of the specific binding between actin and myosin molecules and is likely to underlie at least in part the mechanism of caldesmon-induced contractility suppression. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved