Non-coding transcripts originating from bidirectional promoters have been 
reported in a wide range of organisms. In yeast, these divergent transcripts can 
be subdivided into two classes. Some are designated Cryptic Unstable Transcripts 
(CUTs) because they are terminated by the Nrd1-Nab3-Sen1 pathway and then 
rapidly degraded by the nuclear exosome. This is the same processing pathway 
used by yeast snoRNAs. Whereas CUTs are only easily observed in cells lacking 
the Rrp6 or Rrp47 subunits of the nuclear exosome, Stable Uncharacterized 
Transcripts (SUTs) are present even in wild-type cells. Here we show that SUTs 
are partially susceptible to the nuclear exosome, but are primarily degraded by 
cytoplasmic 5' to 3' degradation and nonsense-mediated decay (NMD). Therefore, 
SUTs may be processed similarly to mRNAs. Surprisingly, both CUTs and SUTs were 
found to produce 3' extended species that were also subject to cytoplasmic 
degradation. The functions, if any, of these extended CUTs and SUTs are unknown, 
but their discovery suggests that yeasts generate transcripts reminiscent of 
long non-coding RNAs found in higher eukaryotes.