Bang senseless (bss) is a gene identified in Drosophila melanogaster that is known to yield seizure-like activity in mutant phenotypes.
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Location
Bang senseless has been localized to 1-54, left of forked (f) and right of scalloped (sd).
Inducing seizure activity
Seizures can be induced by mechanical shock, electrical shock, or high-frequency visual stimuli such as strobe lights. Mechanical shock can be achieved by vortexing bang senseless mutants in a small vial for ~10 seconds on a VWR vortex set to its maximum setting.
Alleles
Aside from the wild-type allele, two mutant alleles have been identified: bss1 & bss2.
bss1
The bss1 mutants typically recover from seizure after 100–400 seconds.
bss2
Less is known about the bss2 allele, but it is known that it is also a paralytic mutant (prone to seizure-like activity).