Selenium is an essential dietary element with antioxidant roles in immune regulation, but
there is little understanding of how this element acts at the molecular level in host defense
and inflammatory disease. Selenium is incorporated into the amino acid selenocysteine
(Sec), which in turn is inserted into selenoproteins in a manner dependent on Sec tRNA
[Ser] Sec. To investigate the molecular mechanism that links selenium to T cell immunity, we
generated mice with selenoprotein-less T cells by cell type-specific ablation of the Sec tRNA …