• epilepsy

Mutations in a number of Drosophila genes produce phenotypes of seizure sensitivity, including a lowered threshold to evoked electrophysiologically recorded seizure-like activity and "bang-sensitive" phenotypes. This report describes work done with the fly gene jus (julius seizure; originally designated slamdance, sda). Dmel\jus encodes a novel transmembrane protein containing two transmembrane domains and an extracellular cysteine-rich loop. Classical loss-of-function alleles, RNAi-targeting constructs, and alleles caused by insertional mutagenesis have been generated for jus. No human gene orthologous to Dmel\jus has been identified.

Dmel\jus adults exhibit strong seizure-sensitive phenotypes, including cold-sensitive paralysis and partial sensitivity to strobe-induced seizures. RNAi directed to different cell types has established that jus is required in neurons but not glia; partial bang-sensitivity is caused by knockdown in GABAergic or cholinergic but not glutamatergic neurons. A large number of genetic interactions have been described for this gene; see the gene report for jus.

[updated Oct. 2018 by FlyBase; FBrf0222196]