Table 1.

Nomenclature of large-conductance K⁺ channel proteins and genes used in this review.

BK	Protein complex forming an ion channel with a phenotype that combines high-conductance for K+ with voltage- and Ca2+-gating, disregarding subunit composition. Also cited in literature as BKCa or MaxiK channels.
KCNMA1	Mammalian gene that encodes the BK channel-forming slo1 protein, so called BK α subunit.
KCNMB1-4	Genes that encode the regulatory BK β subunits, these subunits being unable to form functional channels by themselves. Four β subunits have been identified (β1-4), each of the four types resulting from its corresponding gene (KCNMB1-4).
Slo1	Same as KCNMA1.
Slo	General term to define any non-mammalian ortholog of Slo1.
xslo1	BK channel-forming α subunit, where “x” denotes the species of origin (e.g., hslo1 from human, mslo1 from mouse, etc.) For consistency with previously published work, an exception was made for cbv1, which denotes slo1 proteins cloned from rat cerebral blood vessel (artery) myocytes.
slo2	High-conductance K+ channel protein gated by Na+i or Cl−i.
slo3	High-conductance for K+ channel protein gated by H+i/OH−i.