Paralytic is a gene in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, which encodes a voltage gated sodium channel within D. melanogaster neurons.[1] This gene is essential for locomotive activity in the fly.[1] There are 9 different paraalleles, composed of a minimum of 26 exons within over 78kb[2] of genomic DNA.[3] The para gene undergoes alternative splicing to produce subtypes of the channel protein.[3] Flies with mutant forms of paralytic are used in fly models of seizures, since seizures can be easily induced in these flies.[4]