Scientists solve 30-year micronutrient mystery, opening door to new medical research

Posted on: 18 June 2025

An international team of scientists, co-led by researchers at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Florida, has cracked a decades-old mystery in human biology: how our bodies absorb a micronutrient that we rely on for everything from healthy brain function to guarding against cancer. 

Queuosine, a microscopic molecule first discovered in the 1970s, is a vitamin-like micronutrient that we can't make ourselves but can only get from food and our gut bacteria. It’s vital to our health, yet its importance went unnoticed for decades.

Now, in a study published this week in leading international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers have discovered the gene that allows queuosine to enter the cells, a discovery that opens the door for potential therapies to be created to leverage the micronutrient’s role in cancer suppression, memory and how the brain learns new information. 

Scientists have pinpointed the specific gene (SLC35F2) as the first known human transporter of queuosine, which functions as a mysterious “transfer RNA” modification that provides us with the ability to translate genetic code into proteins (the body’s building blocks) correctly.

Vincent Kelly, Professor in Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology, who is based in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI), is senior author of the research article that has just been published in leading international journal PNAS.

He said: “We have known for a long time that queuosine influences critical processes like brain health, metabolic regulation, cancer and even responses to stress, but until now we haven’t known how it is salvaged from the gut and distributed to the billions of human cells that take it in.”

“For that reason we have been largely hamstrung in our ability to study its role in health and disease, but this landmark discovery will change that. This study not only paves the way for detailed analysis of potential new therapeutic strategies but also provides fresh insight into how what we eat—and the microbes we live with—can influence our fundamental biology.”

Intriguingly, SLC35F2 is conserved across evolution—from simple, single-celled organisms to humans – indicating it has ancient origins in the tree of life, and further underlining its functional importance.

“For over 30 years, scientists have suspected that there had to be a transporter for this nutrient, but no one could find it,” said Prof. Valérie de Crécy-Lagard, a UF/IFAS microbiology and cell science distinguished professor and department associate chair, as well as one of the study’s principal investigators.

“We’ve been hunting for it for a long time. This discovery opens up a whole new chapter in understanding how the microbiome and our diet can influence the translation of our genes.” 

“It’s like a nutrient that fine-tunes how your body reads your genes. The idea that this small compound, which people have barely heard of, plays such an important role, is fascinating.” 

The work lays the foundations for future studies that could lead to new medications, given that the gene has previously been studied regarding how viruses and cancer drugs get into cells, but scientists didn’t know what the gene did in a healthy body until now..

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Research Ireland (formerly Science Foundation Ireland, and the Irish Research Council), the Medical Research Council, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.

The published journal article can be read on the PNAS website.

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