1Allosteric interplays between voltage-sensing domains (VSD), Ca 2+ -binding sites, and the 2 pore domain govern the Ca 2+ -and voltage-activated K + (BK) channel opening. However, 3 the functional relevance of the Ca 2+ -and voltage-sensing mechanisms crosstalk on BK 4 channel gating is still debated. We examined the energetic interaction between Ca 2+ 5 binding and VSD activation measuring and analyzing the effects of internal Ca 2+ on BK 6 channels gating currents. Our results indicate that the Ca 2+ sensors occupancy has a 7 strong impact on the VSD activation through a coordinated interaction mechanism in which 8Ca 2+ binding to a single α-subunit affects all VSDs equally. Moreover, the two distinct high-9affinity Ca 2+ -binding sites contained in the C-terminus domains, RCK1 and RCK2, appear 10 to contribute equally to decrease the free energy necessary to activate the VSD. We 11 conclude that voltage-dependent gating and pore opening in BK channels is modulated to 12 a great extent by the interaction between Ca 2+ sensors and VSDs. 13 BK channels at physiologically relevant voltages necessarily involves the activation of Ca 2+ 39 sensors on the gating ring. The allosteric interplays established between the functional 40 and structural modules (VSD-PD, CTD-PD, and CTD-VSD) are key in enabling BK 41 channels to operate over a dynamic wide-range of internal Ca 2+ and voltage conditions by 42 fine-tuning the channel's gating machinery. Therefore, understanding the structure-43 functional bases that underlie the Ca 2+ and voltage activation mechanisms 44 interrelationship becomes essential. 45The voltage dependence of Ca 2+ -dependent gating ring rearrangements (Miranda et al., 46 2013(Miranda et al., 46 , 2018 and RCK1 site occupancy (Sweet and Cox, 2008; Savalli et al., 2012; Miranda 47 et al., 2018) as well as the perturbation of VSD movements by Ca 2+ binding (Savalli et al., 48 2012) support the idea that the energetic interaction between both specialized sensors 49 may be crucial to favor BK channel activation. The physical CTD-VSD interface has been 50 suggested to provide the structure capable of mediating the crosstalk between these 51 sensory modules and their synergy in activating the pore domain (Yang et al., 2007; Sun 52 et al., 2013; Tao et al., 2017;Zhang et al., 2017). However, the strength of the interaction 53 between voltage and Ca 2+ sensors and their relevance to BK channel activation is still an 54 unresolved matter (Horrigan and Aldrich, 2002; Carrasquel-Ursulaez et al., 2015). Also, 55 the functional role that plays each of the high-affinity Ca 2+ -binding sites on the CTD-VSD 56 allosteric interaction is an open question. The RCK1 and RCK2 Ca 2+ -binding sites have 57 distinct functional properties conferred by their different molecular structures and relative 58 positions within the gating ring (Wu et al., Miranda et al., 2018) and in their 63 5 contribution to allosteric gating mechanism (Yang et al., , 2015. In particular, only 64 the RCK1 site appears to be invol...