  We explore the interplay of matter with quantum gravity with a preferred
frame to highlight that the matter sector cannot be protected from the
symmetry-breaking effects in the gravitational sector. Focusing on Abelian
gauge fields, we show that quantum gravitational radiative corrections induce
Lorentz-invariance-violating couplings for the Abelian gauge field. In
particular, we discuss how such a mechanism could result in the possibility to
translate observational constraints on Lorentz violation in the matter sector
into strong constraints on the Lorentz-violating gravitational couplings.
