Fig. 6: eater mutants have memory deficits and reduced lifespan.

a,b, Measurement of short-term memory (STM) or long-term memory (LTM) in wild-type (CantonS; n = 7) or eater mutants (eater¹; n = 7). eater¹ exhibit impairments in both short-term memory and long-term memory (a). Gaboxadol treatment of eater¹ for 2 days (b) rescues short-term memory defects (left) but not long-term memory (right); n = 6, 6, 7 and 7 from left to right. c, Comparison of lifespan between CantonS and eater¹ flies. eater mutants showed reduced lifespan relative to wild type; n = 300 of each. d, Schematic illustration of haemocyte–glia interaction during sleep. LDs can be eliminated in two distinct pathways: one involves lipid catabolism through beta oxidation in the cortex glia, the other involves the uptake of LDs from the cortex glia by haemocytes through Eater. When haemocyte-mediated lipid uptake is disrupted, LDs accumulate in cortex glia, leading to increased protein acetylation and ROS levels while reducing NAD⁺ levels. This metabolic regulation between glia and haemocytes is crucial for maintaining proper brain lipid metabolism. Sleep promotes this metabolic regulation and is reduced when the process is disrupted. Two-sided unpaired t-test (a), two-sided Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (b) or log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test (c) were performed for data analysis. n are based on biologically independent experiments. Each dot represents more than 100 flies per experiment. Bars in graphs: the mean with s.d. Images were generated by Illustrator. NS, P > 0.01; *P < 0.1; **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. Detailed statistics in Supplementary Table 1.