Open AccessPremammalian origin of the sperm‐specific Slo3 channel
Author(s) -
Vicens Alberto,
AndradeLópez Karla,
Cortez Diego,
Gutiérrez Rosa María,
Treviño Claudia L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
febs open bio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.718
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 2211-5463
DOI - 10.1002/2211-5463.12186
Subject(s) - biology , sperm , vertebrate , transcriptome , gene , genome , evolutionary biology , genetics , gene expression
Slo3 is a sperm‐specific potassium (K + ) channel essential for male fertility. Slo3 channels have so far been considered to be specific to mammals. Through exploratory genomics, we identified the Slo3 gene in the genome of terrestrial (birds and reptiles) and aquatic (fish) vertebrates. In the case of fish, Slo3 has undergone several episodes of gene loss. Transcriptomic analysis showed that vertebrate Slo3 transcript orthologues are predominantly expressed in testis, in concordance with the mammalian Slo3. We conclude that the Slo3 gene arose during the radiation of early vertebrates, much earlier than previously thought. Our findings add to the growing evidence indicating that the phylogenetic profiles of sperm‐specific channels are intermittent throughout metazoan evolution, which probably reflects the adaptation of sperm to different ionic milieus and fertilization environments.