The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), which forms adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP)-regulated chloride channels, is defective in patients with cystic fibrosis. This protein contains two putative nucleotide binding domains (NBD1 and NBD2) and an R domain. CFTR in which the R domain was deleted (CFTR-DELTA-R) conducted chloride independently of the presence of cAMP. However, sites within CFTR other than those deleted also respond to cAMP, because the chloride current of CFTR-DELTA-R increased further in response to cAMP stimulation. In addition, deletion of the R domain suppressed the inactivating effect of a mutation in NBD2 (but not NBD1), a result which suggests that NBD2 interacts with the channel through the R domain.