Caveolin is known to down-regulate both neuronal (nNOS) and endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS). In the present study, direct interactions of recombinant caveolin-1 with both the oxygenase and reductase domains of nNOS were demonstrated using in vitro binding assays. To elucidate the mechanism of nNOS regulation by caveolin, we examined the effects of a caveolin-1 scaffolding domain peptide (CaV1p1; residues (82-101)) on the catalytic activities of wild-type and mutant nNOSs. CaV1p1 inhibited NO formation activity and NADPH oxidation of wild-type nNOS in a dose-dependent manner with an IC(50) value of 1.8 microM. Mutations of Phe(584) and Trp(587) within a caveolin binding consensus motif of the oxygenase domain did not result in the loss of CaV1p1 inhibition, indicating that an alternate region of nNOS mediates inhibition by caveolin. The addition of CaV1p1 also inhibited more than 90% of the cytochrome c reductase activity in the isolated reductase domain with or without the calmodulin (CaM) binding site, whereas CaV1p1 inhibited ferricyanide reductase activity by only 50%. These results suggest that there are significant differences in the mechanism of inhibition by caveolin for nNOS as compared with those previously reported for eNOS. Further analysis of the interaction through the use of several reductase domain deletion mutants revealed that the FMN domain was essential for successful interaction between caveolin-1 and nNOS reductase. We also examined the effects of CaV1p1 on an autoinhibitory domain deletion mutant (Delta40) and a C-terminal truncation mutant (DeltaC33), both of which are able to form NO in the absence of CaM, unlike the wild-type enzyme. Interestingly, CaV1p1 inhibited CaM-dependent, but not CaM-independent, NO formation activities of both Delta40 and DeltaC33, suggesting that CaV1p1 inhibits interdomain electron transfer induced by CaM from the reductase domain to the oxygenase domain.