Expression of Epg5^GL00468 under the control of Scer\GAL4^cg.PU leads to a failure of the late phases of autophagic digestion in the larval fat body upon starvation for 6 hours, indicated by correct formation of, but subsequent digestion of autophagosomes, and abnormal accumulation of large vacuoles in the fat body, but no obvious change in the shape of other cellular structures, as compared with controls.

Expression of Epg5^GL00468 under the control of Scer\GAL4^GMR.PU (using a temperature sensitive GAL80 allele to restrict expression to the adult stage) results in progressive loss of photoreceptor neurons in the adult retina.