Fig. 1: Autophagy deficiency in Drosophila photoreceptors leads to increased neurotransmission and visual attention.

a, b Newly hatched (0-day-old) genetic mosaic flies with autophagy-deficient (atg6 and atg7 mutants) photoreceptors exhibit normal eye morphology (a) and axonal projections in the optic lobe (b). Repeated three times independently. c Representative electroretinogram (ERG) traces. Repeated three times independently. d, e Quantification of ERG depolarization (d) and on-transient (e) amplitudes relative to control. Rescue of atg6 mutant photoreceptors with GMR > atg6 expression leads to overcompensation and increased autophagy (see Supplementary Fig. 1). n = 20 flies per condition. Two-tailed unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. Error bars denote mean ± SEM. f Buridan’s paradigm arena to measure object orientation response of adult flies, with two black stripes positioned opposite to each other as visual cues. g The parameter “stripe deviation”’ measures how much a fly deviates from a straight path between the black stripes in the arena. h Stripe fixation behavior of adult flies with atg6 mutant photoreceptors, photoreceptors with upregulated autophagy (atg6, GMR > Atg6), and their genetically matched controls are shown on the population level (heatmap) and as individual tracks. Flies with atg6 mutant photoreceptors show reduced stripe deviation, whereas increased autophagy (atg6, GMR > Atg6) leads to increased stripe deviation. i Quantification of stripe deviation. The error bars indicate the 25th percentile, the boxed area the 75th percentile, and the middle line of the boxplots indicates the median. n = 60 flies per condition, two-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD as post-hoc test; ***p < 0.001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.