Figure 5. Evaluation of ribophagy on RNA degradation under nitrogen starvation.

1. Time-dependent change in nucleoside levels after nitrogen starvation. Wild-type, atg2Δ, ubp3Δ, and bre5Δ cells were grown in SD to mid-log phase and transferred to SD(-N) at time 0. Metabolites were analyzed by LC/MS as described in Materials and Methods. The results are presented as normalized intensities on the basis of the peak height of each metabolite in wild-type cells. All data are means of triplicates. The error bars represent the standard deviation.
2. Detection of free RNA within cells. rny1Δ, rny1Δatg2Δ, rny1Δubp3Δ, and rny1Δbre5Δ cells grown in SD(-N) for 2 h were stained with FM4-64 and GR Green and observed under a fluorescence microscope. Scale bar, 5 μm.