Facing the fats: Can mass spectrometry unmask the true structuraldiversity of the lipidome? — ASN Events
  1. Schedule
  2. Symposium Five: Metabolomics
  3. Facing the fats: Can mass spectrometry unmask the true structuraldiversity of the lipidome?

Facing the fats: Can mass spectrometry unmask the true structuraldiversity of the lipidome? (#17)

Stephen Blanksby 1 , M Bhujel 1 , H.T Pham 2 , T.W Mitchell 3
  1. Central Analytical Research Facility, Queensland University of Technology, QLD
  2. Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, USA
  3. School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, NSW

Lipids play pivotal and diverse roles in cellular function, ranging from structuring cell membranes to energy storage and signaling. Understanding the full range of the biological functions of lipids, and the associated mechanisms, requires a detailed understanding of the diverse array of molecular structures that constitute the lipidome.[1] Recent advances in mass spectrometry – notably the increases in sensitivity and resolving power – have revealed the staggering molecular complexity of lipids in biological extracts. Elucidating the molecular structure of these lipids within such rich mixtures however, represents a formidable challenge to conventional mass spectrometry. The recent combination of collision-induced dissociation (CID) with ozone-induced dissociation (OzID) has been shown to be a powerful approach to providing a near-complete structure of complex lipids including the assignment of position(s) of unsaturation and relative acyl chain positions in glycerolipids.[2] Importantly, these novel ion activation strategies identify the presence of isomeric lipids within complex extracts and examples from investigations of lipid extracts from humans and insects indicate functional significance of specific isomeric forms.  

  1. Brown, S. H. J., Mitchell, T. W., Oakley, A. J., Pham, H. T., and Blanksby, S. J. “Time to face the fats: What can mass spectrometry reveal about the structure of lipids and their interactions with proteins?” J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 2012, 23 (9), 1441-1449.
  2. Pham, H. T., Maccarone, A. T., Thomas, M. C., Campbell, J. L., Mitchell, T. W. and Blanksby, S. J. “Structural characterization of glycerophospholipids by combinations of ozone- and collision-induced dissociation mass spectrometry: The next step towards “top-down” lipidomics” Analyst 2014, 139, 204-214.