Viability assays to monitor yeast autophagy.

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, autophagy contributes to the sustaining of cell viability under starvation conditions, possibly through the supply of amino acids that is generated as a result of the degradation of cytosolic materials. Therefore, cellular viability is one of the best indexes for monitoring the completion of the entire autophagic process. In this chapter, several assays for monitoring yeast viability are presented. Along with the standard colony-formation assay, assays using the dye phloxine B are introduced.