So-Called ‘Longevity Vitamin’ Might Hold More Importance Than Scientists Thought

New research from a University of Florida microbiologist shows that disease-causing bacteria compete with their human hosts for a key micronutrient.

Although queuine (pronounced KYOO-in) has been identified as essential to human health – a 2018 study by Bruce Ames referred to it as a “longevity vitamin” – much is still unknown about the compound that humans must obtain from their natural gut bacteria, or secondarily, through dietary sources.

“Usually, bacteria make queuine from scratch,” said Valérie de Crécy-Lagard, a professor in the UF/IFAS department of microbiology and cell science whose just-published paper detailing the discovery appears in the journal PNAS. “What we found is that some bacteria that live in the human environment are not making it from scratch; instead, they’re competing for the same micronutrients as the human host.”

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