For amino acid deprivation experiments, Amino Acid Free Medium (US Biological, Salem, MA) was added to the cells. Subsequently, cells were stained with crystal violet or collected for protein analysis. For gene silencing studies, cells were plated in 6-well plates and transfected with 30 pmol siRNA targeting YAP (ID# s20366; ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA), TAZ (ID# s24789; ThermoFisher Scientific), TEAD4 (ID# 107036; ThermoFisher Scientific), and β-catenin (ID# AM51331; ThermoFisher Scientific), either alone or in combination using Lipofectamine RNAiMAX (Life Technologies) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. A scramble small interfering RNA (siRNA; ID# 4390844; ThermoFisher Scientific) was used as negative control RNA. 48-72h post transfection, cells were collected for protein and RNA analysis. Experiments were repeated at least three times in triplicate.