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.

Coat protein complex I (COPI)–coated vesicles mediate membrane trafficking between Golgi cisternae as well as retrieval of proteins from the Golgi to the endoplasmic reticulum. There are several flavors of the COPI coat defined by paralogous subunits of the protein complex coatomer. However, whether paralogous COPI proteins have specific functions is currently unknown. Here, we show that the paralogous coatomer subunits γ1-COP and γ2-COP are differentially expressed during the neuronal differentiation of mouse pluripotent cells. Moreover, through a combination of genome editing experiments, we demonstrate that whereas γ-COP paralogs are largely functionally redundant, γ1-COP specifically promotes neurite outgrowth. Our work stresses a role of the COPI pathway in neuronal polarization and provides evidence for distinct functions for coatomer paralogous subunits in this process.

Slo3 is a pH-sensitive and weakly voltage-sensitive potassium channel that is essential for male fertility in mouse and whose expression is regarded as sperm-specific. These properties have proposed Slo3 as a candidate target for male contraceptive drugs. Nonetheless, the tissue distribution of Slo3 expression has not been rigorously studied yet. Applying computational and RT-PCR approaches, we identified expression of two short Slo3 isoforms in somatic mouse tissues such as brain, kidney and eye. These isoforms, which seem to result of transcription starting sites between exons 20 and 21, have an identical open reading frame, both encoding the terminal 381 amino acids of the cytosolic Slo3 domain. We corroborated the expression of these isoforms in mouse brain and testis by Westernblot. The complete isoform encoding the Slo3 ion channel was uniquely detected in testis, both at transcript and protein level. Although the functional role of the cytosolic Slo3 isoforms remains to be established, we propose that they may have a functional effect by modulating Slo channels trafficking and/or activity. This study confirms that expression of full-length Slo3 is sperm-specific but warns against developing contraceptive drugs targeting the C-terminal tail of Slo3 channels.

Coat protein complex I (COPI)-coated vesicles mediate membrane trafficking between Golgi cisternae as well as retrieval of proteins from the Golgi to the endoplasmic reticulum. There are several flavors of the COPI coat defined by paralogous subunits of the protein complex coatomer. However, whether paralogous COPI proteins have specific functions is currently unknown. Here we show that the paralogous coatomer subunits g1-COP and g2-COP are differentially expressed during the neuronal differentiation of mouse pluripotent cells. Moreover, through a combination of genome editing experiments, we demonstrate that whereas g-COP paralogs are largely functionally redundant, g1-COP specifically promotes neurite outgrowth. Our work stresses a role of the COPI pathway in neuronal polarization and provides evidence for distinct functions for coatomer paralogous subunits in this process.