Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

Threonine fuels brain tumor growth through a conserved tRNA modification

A CRISPR dropout screen for tRNA regulators identified YRDC as the top essential gene in glioblastoma stem cells. Threonine acts as a substrate of YRDC to facilitate the N6-threonylcarbamoyladenosine (t6A) tRNA modification and shift translation toward mitosis-related genes with a codon bias. Our findings support targeting glioblastoma growth by a well-tolerated dietary therapy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Threonine- and YRDC- mediated t6A formation can be targeted by dietary treatment.

References

  1. Gimple, R. C., Yang, K., Halbert, M. E., Agnihotri, S. & Rich, J. N. Brain cancer stem cells: resilience through adaptive plasticity and hierarchical heterogeneity. Nat. Rev. Cancer 22, 497–514 (2022). A review article that provides a comprehensive overview of the biology of brain cancer stem cells.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Suzuki, T. The expanding world of tRNA modifications and their disease relevance. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 22, 375–392 (2021). A review article that presents tRNA modifications and their roles in human diseases.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Dedon, P. C. & Begley, T. J. Dysfunctional tRNA reprogramming and codon-biased translation in cancer. Trends Mol. Med. 28, 964–978 (2022). A review article that presents dysregulation of tRNA epitranscriptome and codon-biased translation in cancer.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Yuan, H. et al. Lysine catabolism reprograms tumour immunity through histone crotonylation. Nature 617, 818–826 (2023). In this previous study from our group, we used dietary lysine restriction to reshape the immune microenvironment of GBM.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Lin, H. et al. CO2-sensitive tRNA modification associated with human mitochondrial disease. Nat. Commun. 9, 1875 (2018). This paper reports that mitochondrial t6A formation is dynamically regulated by CO2/bicarbonate.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Wu, X. et al. Threonine fuels glioblastoma through YRDC-mediated codon-biased translational reprogramming. Nat. Cancer https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-024-00748-7 (2024).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Threonine fuels brain tumor growth through a conserved tRNA modification. Nat Cancer (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-024-00750-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-024-00750-z

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer