DIDS (4,4′-di-isothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulfonate), an anion channel blocker, triggers Ca2+ release from skeletal muscle SR (sarcoplasmic reticulum). The present study characterized the effects of DIDS on rabbit skeletal single Ca2+-release channel/RyR1 (ryanodine receptor type 1) incorporated into a planar lipid bilayer. When junctional SR vesicles were used for channel incorporation (native RyR1), DIDS increased the mean Po (open probability) of RyR1 without affecting unitary conductance when Cs+ was used as the charge carrier. Lifetime analysis of single RyR1 activities showed that 10 μM DIDS induced reversible long-lived open events (Po=0.451±0.038) in the presence of 10 μM Ca2+, due mainly to a new third component for both open and closed time constants. However, when purified RyR1 was examined in the same condition, 10 μM DIDS became considerably less potent (Po=0.206±0.025), although the caffeine response was similar between native and purified RyR1. Hence we postulated that a DIDS-binding protein, essential for the DIDS sensitivity of RyR1, was lost during RyR1 purification. DIDS-affinity column chromatography of solubilized junctional SR, and MALDI–TOF (matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization–time-of-flight) MS analysis of the affinity-column-associated proteins, identified four major DIDS-binding proteins in the SR fraction. Among them, aldolase was the only protein that greatly potentiated DIDS sensitivity. The association between RyR1 and aldolase was further confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation and aldolase-affinity batch-column chromatography. Taken together, we conclude that aldolase is physically associated with RyR1 and could confer a considerable potentiation of the DIDS effect on RyR1.