Lipidomics articles from across Nature Portfolio

In this Tools of the Trade article, Laura Capolupo (at D’Angelo lab) describes the approach to study cell-to-cell heterogeneity in lipid content and its correspondence to cell identity.

Increasing evidence suggests that the spatial distribution of biomolecules within cells is a critical component in deciphering single-cell molecular heterogeneity. State-of-the-art single-cell MS imaging is uniquely capable of localizing biomolecules within cells, providing a dimension of information beyond what is currently available through in-depth omics investigations.

A crucial step in the cell-death process of ferroptosis is the incorporation of free polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) into membrane phospholipids. An enzyme has now been identified that contributes to ferroptosis by directly transferring PUFAs from phospholipids to ether lysophospholipids to form ether phospholipids.

Metabolomics is on the precipice of transforming from a research tool into a powerful clinical platform to improve precision medicine. However, metabolomics methods need to be validated in clinical research to enable rapid translation of research results into clinical tests.

Pinpointing double bond (C=C) positions in native lipid extracts is beyond the capabilities of standard mass spectrometry-based approaches. This article highlights a novel untargeted workflow supported by the open-source software MS-RIDD, that allows for semi-automated annotation of C=C locations with high confidence.

Giovanni D’Angelo and Gioele La Manno present the concept of lipotypes, and suggest that lipid composition is an important regulator of cell fate.