Investigation into the Role of Rrp8 in Autophagy Flux in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Abstract

Autophagy is a dynamic cellular pathway of degrading and recycling the cellular cargo within the vacuole or lysosome to maintain cellular health and metabolism. Autophagy is upregulated when cells undergo stress. Autophagy dysfunction is associated with various problems like cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases. While several autophagy-related genes have been identified, the role of nucleolar proteins in autophagy regulation remains largely unexplored. Ribosomal RNA processing 8 (Rrp8) is a conserved nucleolar protein implicated in ribosomal RNA processing and ribosome biogenesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Since ribosome biogenesis is tightly connected to nutrient availability and cellular energy balance, Rrp8 may play an important role in regulating cellular responses to starvation. However, whether Rrp8 plays a functional role in autophagy regulation has not been directly studied. This gap in knowledge provides the basis for our current study which investigates the role of Rrp8 in autophagy regulation during nitrogen starvation in S cerevisiae.