Separation and classification of lipids using differential ion mobility spectrometry

Localization of Post-Translational Modifications in Peptide Mixtures via High-Resolution Differential Ion Mobility Separations Followed by Electron Transfer Dissociation

Precise localization of post-translational modifications (PTMs) on proteins and peptides is an outstanding challenge in proteomics. While electron transfer dissociation (ETD) has dramatically advanced PTM analyses, mixtures of localization variants that commonly coexist in cells often require prior separation. Although differential or field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) achieves broad variant resolution, the need for standards to identify the features has limited the utility of approach. Here we demonstrate full a priori characterization of variant mixtures by high-resolution FAIMS coupled to ETD and the procedures to systematically extract the FAIMS spectra for all variants from such data. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

Differential mobility spectrometry/mass spectrometry history, theory, design optimization, simulations, and applications

This review of differential mobility spectrometry focuses primarily on mass spectrometry coupling, starting with the history of the development of this technique in the Soviet Union. Fundamental principles of the separation process are covered, in addition to efforts related to design optimization and advancements in computer simulations. The flexibility of differential mobility spectrometry design features is explored in detail, particularly with regards to separation capability, speed, and ion transmission. 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev 35:687-737, 2016.

Mass Spectrometric Collisional Activation and Product Ion Mobility of Human Serum Neutral Lipid Extracts

A novel method for lipid analysis called CTS (collisional activation and traveling wave mass spectrometry), involving tandem mass spectrometry of all precursor ions with ion mobility determinations of all product ions, was applied to a sample of human serum. The resulting four-dimensional data set (precursor ion, product ion, ion mobility value, and intensity) was found to be useful for characterization of lipids as classes as well as for identification of specific species. Utilization of ion mobility measurements of the product ions is a novel approach for lipid analysis. The trends and patterns of product mobility values when visually displayed yield information on lipid classes and specific species independent of mass determination. Collection of a comprehensive set of data that incorporates all precursor-product relationships, combined with ion mobility measurements of all products, enables data analysis where different molecular properties can be juxtaposed and analyzed to assist with class and species identification. Overall, CTS is a powerful, specific, and comprehensive method for lipid analysis.

Elucidating the chemical structure of native 1-deoxysphingosine

The 1-deoxysphingolipids (1-deoxySLs) are formed by an alternate substrate usage of the enzyme, serine-palmitoyltransferase, and are devoid of the C1-OH-group present in canonical sphingolipids. Pathologically elevated 1-deoxySL levels are associated with the rare inherited neuropathy, HSAN1, and diabetes type 2 and might contribute to β cell failure and the diabetic sensory neuropathy. In analogy to canonical sphingolipids, it was assumed that 1-deoxySLs also bear a (4E) double bond, which is normally introduced by sphingolipid delta(4)-desaturase 1. This, however, was never confirmed. We therefore supplemented HEK293 cells with isotope-labeled D3-1-deoxysphinganine and compared the downstream formed D3-1-deoxysphingosine (1-deoxySO) to a commercial synthetic SPH m18:1(4E)(3OH) standard. Both compounds showed the same m/z, but differed in their RPLC retention time and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization in-source fragmentation, suggesting that the two compounds are structural isomers. Using dimethyl disulfide derivatization followed by MS(2) as well as differential-mobility spectrometry combined with ozone-induced dissociation MS, we identified the carbon-carbon double bond in native 1-deoxySO to be located at the (Δ14) position. Comparing the chromatographic behavior of native 1-deoxySO to chemically synthesized SPH m18:1(14Z) and (14E) stereoisomers assigned the native compound to be SPH m18:1(14Z). This indicates that 1-deoxySLs are metabolized differently than canonical sphingolipids.

Ion Mobility Separation of Peptide Isotopomers

Differential or field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) operating at high electric fields fully resolves isotopic isomers for a peptide with labeled residues. The naturally present isotopes, alone and together with targeted labels, also cause spectral shifts that approximately add for multiple heavy atoms. Separation qualitatively depends on the gas composition. These findings may enable novel strategies in proteomic and metabolomic analyses using stable isotope labeling.

Uncovering biologically significant lipid isomers with liquid chromatography, ion mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry

Understanding how biological molecules are generated, metabolized and eliminated in living systems is important for interpreting processes such as immune response and disease pathology. While genomic and proteomic studies have provided vast amounts of information over the last several decades, interest in lipidomics has also grown due to improved analytical technologies revealing altered lipid metabolism in type 2 diabetes, cancer, and lipid storage disease. Mass spectrometry (MS) measurements are currently the dominant approach for characterizing the lipidome by providing detailed information on the spatial and temporal composition of lipids. However, interpreting lipids' biological roles is challenging due to the existence of numerous structural and stereoisomers (i.e. distinct acyl chain and double-bond positions), which are often unresolvable using present approaches. Here we show that combining liquid chromatography (LC) and structurally-based ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) measurement with MS analyses distinguishes lipid isomers and allows insight into biological and disease processes.

Determination of triacylglycerol regioisomers using differential mobility spectrometry

RATIONALE

Triacylglycerols (TG) contain three fatty acyls attached to the glycerol backbone in stereochemically numbered positions sn-1, 2 and 3. Isobaric TG with exchanged fatty acyl chains in positions sn-1/3 vs. sn-2 are referred to as regioisomers and the determination of their regioisomeric ratios is important for nutrition purposes.

METHODS

Differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is applied for the separation of simple unsaturated TG regioisomers extracted from porcine adipose tissue using their silver-ion molecular adducts.

RESULTS

Four pairs of TG regioisomers containing combinations of unsaturated and saturated fatty acyl chains are successfully separated using DMS with 1-butanol or 1-propanol as the chemical modifier. Various experimental parameters are carefully optimized, such as the separation and compensation voltages applied to DMS electrodes, the type and flow rate of chemical modifier and the dwell time of analyte ions in the DMS cell. The optimized DMS approach is used for the characterization of TG regioisomers in less than one minute, compared to tens of minutes typical for silver-ion or reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry approaches.

CONCLUSIONS

The application of this method for the characterization of TG regioisomers in porcine adipose tissue shows the method suitability for analyses of other animal fats.

High resolution ion mobility-mass spectrometry for separation and identification of isomeric lipids

Lipidomics is a particularly difficult analytical challenge due to the number and importance of isomeric species that are known or postulated in biological samples. Current separation and identification techniques are too often insufficiently powerful, slow or ambiguous. High resolution, low field ion mobility coupled to mass spectrometry is shown here to have sufficient performance to represent a new alternative for lipidomics. For the first time, drift-tube ion mobility separation of lipid isomers that differ only in position of the acyl chain, position of the double bond or double bond geometry is demonstrated. Differences in collision cross sections of less than 1% are sufficient for baseline separation. The same level of performance is maintained in complex biological mixtures. More than 130 high-precision reduced mobility and collision cross section values were also determined for a range of lipids. Such data can be the basis of a new lipidomics workflow, as the appropriate libraries are developed.

Analytical methods in sphingolipidomics: Quantitative and profiling approaches in food analysis

In recent years, sphingolipidomics has emerged as an interesting omic science that encompasses the study of the full sphingolipidome characterization, content, structure and activity in cells, tissues or organisms. Like other omics, it has the potential to impact biomarker discovery, drug development and systems biology knowledge. Concretely, dietary food sphingolipids have gained considerable importance due to their extensively reported bioactivity. Because of the complexity of this lipid family and their diversity among foods, powerful analytical methodologies are needed for their study. The analytical tools developed in the past have been improved with the enormous advances made in recent years in mass spectrometry (MS) and chromatography, which allow the convenient and sensitive identification and quantitation of sphingolipid classes and form the basis of current sphingolipidomics methodologies. In addition, novel hyphenated nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) strategies, new ionization strategies, and MS imaging are outlined as promising technologies to shape the future of sphingolipid analyses. This review traces the analytical methods of sphingolipidomics in food analysis concerning sample extraction, chromatographic separation, the identification and quantification of sphingolipids by MS and their structural elucidation by NMR.

Enhancing bottom-up and top-down proteomic measurements with ion mobility separations

Proteomic measurements with greater throughput, sensitivity, and structural information are essential for improving both in-depth characterization of complex mixtures and targeted studies. While LC separation coupled with MS (LC-MS) measurements have provided information on thousands of proteins in different sample types, the introduction of a separation stage that provides further component resolution and rapid structural information has many benefits in proteomic analyses. Technical advances in ion transmission and data acquisition have made ion mobility separations an opportune technology to be easily and effectively incorporated into LC-MS proteomic measurements for enhancing their information content. Herein, we report on applications illustrating increased sensitivity, throughput, and structural information by utilizing IMS-MS and LC-IMS-MS measurements for both bottom-up and top-down proteomics measurements.

Oxidative lipidomics coming of age: advances in analysis of oxidized phospholipids in physiology and pathology

SIGNIFICANCE

Oxidized phospholipids are now well recognized as markers of biological oxidative stress and bioactive molecules with both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory effects. While analytical methods continue to be developed for studies of generic lipid oxidation, mass spectrometry (MS) has underpinned the advances in knowledge of specific oxidized phospholipids by allowing their identification and characterization, and it is responsible for the expansion of oxidative lipidomics.

RECENT ADVANCES

Studies of oxidized phospholipids in biological samples, from both animal models and clinical samples, have been facilitated by the recent improvements in MS, especially targeted routines that depend on the fragmentation pattern of the parent molecular ion and improved resolution and mass accuracy. MS can be used to identify selectively individual compounds or groups of compounds with common features, which greatly improves the sensitivity and specificity of detection. Application of these methods has enabled important advances in understanding the mechanisms of inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, steatohepatitis, leprosy, and cystic fibrosis, and it offers potential for developing biomarkers of molecular aspects of the diseases.

CRITICAL ISSUES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The future in this field will depend on development of improved MS technologies, such as ion mobility, novel enrichment methods and databases, and software for data analysis, owing to the very large amount of data generated in these experiments. Imaging of oxidized phospholipids in tissue MS is an additional exciting direction emerging that can be expected to advance understanding of physiology and disease.

Applications of ion-mobility mass spectrometry for lipid analysis

The high chemical complexity of the lipidome is one of the major challenges in lipidomics research. Ion-mobility spectrometry (IMS), a gas-phase electrophoretic technique, makes possible the separation of ions in the gas phase according to their charge, shape, and size. IMS can be combined with mass spectrometry (MS), adding three major benefits to traditional lipidomic approaches. First, IMS-MS allows the determination of the collision cross section (CCS), a physicochemical measure related to the conformational structure of lipid ions. The CCS is used to improve the confidence of lipid identification. Second, IMS-MS provides a new set of hybrid fragmentation experiments. These experiments, which combine collision-induced dissociation with ion-mobility separation, improve the specificity of MS/MS-based approaches. Third, IMS-MS improves the peak capacity and signal-to-noise ratio of traditional analytical approaches. In doing so, it allows the separation of complex lipid extracts from interfering isobaric species. Developing in parallel with advances in instrumentation, informatics solutions enable analysts to process and exploit IMS-MS data for qualitative and quantitative applications. Here we review the current approaches for lipidomics research based on IMS-MS, including liquid chromatography-MS and direct-MS analyses of "shotgun" lipidomics and MS imaging.

Experimental evaluation and optimization of structures for lossless ion manipulations for ion mobility spectrometry with time-of-flight mass spectrometry

We report on the performance of structures for lossless ion manipulation (SLIM) as a means for transmitting ions and performing ion mobility separations (IMS). Ions were successfully transferred from an electrospray ionization (ESI) source to the TOF MS analyzer by means of a linear SLIM, demonstrating lossless ion transmission and an alternative arrangement including a 90° turn. First, the linear geometry was optimized for radial confinement by tuning RF on the central "rung" electrodes and potentials on the DC-only guard electrodes. Selecting an appropriate DC guard bias (2-6 V) and RF amplitude (≥160 V(p-p) at 750 kHz) resulted in the greatest ion intensities. Close to ideal IMS resolving power was maintained over a significant range of applied voltages. Second, the 90° turn was optimized for radial confinement by tuning RF on the rung electrodes and DC on the guard electrodes. However, both resolving power and ion transmission showed a dependence on these voltages, and the best conditions for both were >300 V(p-p) RF (685 kHz) and 7-11 V guard DC bias. Both geometries provide IMS resolving powers at the theoretical limit (R ~ 58), showing that degraded resolution from a "racetrack" effect from turning around a corner can be successfully avoided, and the capability also was maintained for essentially lossless ion transmission.

Three-dimensional enhanced lipidomics analysis combining UPLC, differential ion mobility spectrometry, and mass spectrometric separation strategies

Phospholipids serve as central structural components in cellular membranes and as potent mediators in numerous signaling pathways. There are six main classes of naturally occurring phospholipids distinguished by their distinct polar head groups that contain many unique molecular species with distinct fatty acid composition. Phospholipid molecular species are often expressed as isobaric species that are denoted by the phospholipid class and the total number of carbon atoms and double bonds contained in the esterified fatty acyl groups (e.g., phosphatidylcholine 34:2). Techniques to separate these molecules exist, and each has positive and negative attributes. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography uses polar bonded silica to separate lipids by polar head group but not by specific molecular species. Reversed phase (RP) chromatography can separate by fatty acyl chain composition but not by polar head group. Herein we describe a new strategy called differential ion mobility spectrometry (DMS), which separates phospholipid classes by their polar head group. Combining DMS with current LC methods enhances phospholipid separation by increasing resolution, specificity, and signal-to-noise ratio. Additional application of specialized information-dependent acquisition methodologies along with RP chromatography allows full isobaric resolution, identification, and compositional characterization of specific phospholipids at the molecular level.

Differential mobility spectrometry-driven shotgun lipidomics

The analysis of lipids by mass spectrometry (MS) can provide in-depth characterization for many forms of biological samples. However, such workflows can also be hampered by challenges like low chromatographic resolution for lipid separations and the convolution of mass spectra from isomeric and isobaric species. To address these issues, we describe the use of differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) as a rapid and predictable separation technique within a shotgun lipidomics workflow, with a special focus on phospholipids (PLs). These analytes, ionized by electrospray ionization (ESI), are filtered using DMS prior to MS analysis. The observed separation (measured in terms of DMS compensation voltage) is affected by several factors, including the m/z of the lipid ion, the structure of an individual ion, and the presence of chemical modifiers in the DMS cell. Such DMS separations can simplify the analysis of complex extracts in a robust and reproducible manner, independent of utilized MS instrumentation. The predictable separation achieved with DMS can facilitate correct lipid assignments among many isobaric and isomeric species independent of the resolution settings of the MS analysis. This leads to highly comprehensive and quantitative lipidomic outputs through rapid profiling analyses, such as Q1 and MRM scans. The ultimate benefit of the DMS separation in this unique shotgun lipidomics workflow is its ability to separate many isobaric and isomeric lipids that by standard shotgun lipidomics workflows are difficult to assess precisely, for example, ether and diacyl species and phosphatidylcholine (PC) and sphingomyelin (SM) lipids.

Performance enhancement in the measurement of 5 endogenous steroids by LC-MS/MS combined with differential ion mobility spectrometry

BACKGROUND

Challenges for steroid analysis by LC-MS/MS include low ionization efficiency, endogenous isobars with similar fragmentation patterns and chromatographic retention. Differential ion mobility spectrometry (DMS) provides an additional degree of separation prior to MS/MS detection, and shows promise in improving specificity of analysis. We developed a sensitive and specific method for measurement of corticosterone, 11-deoxycortisol, 11-deoxycorticosterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone and progesterone in human serum and plasma using an ABSciex 5500 mass spectrometer equipped with a differential ion mobility interface.

METHODS

250μL aliquots of serum were spiked with deuterated internal standards and extracted with MTBE. The samples were analyzed using positive mode electrospray LC-DMS-MS/MS. The method was validated and compared with immunoassays and LC-MS/MS methods of reference laboratories.

RESULTS

Inter and intra assay imprecision was <10%. Limits of quantification and detection in nmol/L were 0.18, 0.09 for corticosterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone, 0.30, 0.16 for 11-deoxycortisol, 0.12, 0.06 for progesterone and 0.06, 0.03 for 11-deoxycorticosterone. Comparison for progesterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone with immunoassay showed slopes of 0.97 and 1.0, intercepts of 0.16 and 0.10 and coefficients of determination (r(2)) of 0.92 and 0.97, respectively. Progesterone by immunoassay showed positive bias in samples measuring <3.18nmol/L. Reference intervals for progesterone and 11-deoxycorticosterone in post-menopausal women were found to be <2.88 and <0.28nmol/L respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

We developed and validated an LC-DMS-MS/MS method for analysis of five endogenous steroids suitable for routine measurements in clinical diagnostic laboratories. Specificity gained with DMS allows reducing the complexity of sample preparation, decreasing LC run times and increasing speed of the analysis.

MALDI-Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry of Lipids in Negative Ion Mode

Profiling and imaging MALDI mass spectrometry (MS) allows detection and localization of biomolecules in tissue, of which lipids are a major component. However, due to the in situ nature of this technique, complexity of tissue and need for a chemical matrix, the recorded signal is complex and can be difficult to assign. Ion mobility adds a dimension that provides coarse shape information, separating isobaric lipids, peptides, and oligonucleotides along distinct familial trend lines before mass analysis. Previous work using MALDI-ion mobility mass spectrometry to analyze and image lipids has been conducted mainly in positive ion mode, although several lipid classes ionize preferentially in negative ion mode. This work highlights recent data acquired in negative ion mode to detect glycerophosphoethanolamines (PEs), glycerophosphoserines (PSs), glycerophosphoglycerols (PGs), glycerolphosphoinositols (PIs), glycerophosphates (PAs), sulfatides (STs), and gangliosides from standard tissue extracts and directly from mouse brain tissue. In particular, this study focused on changes in ion mobility based upon lipid head groups, composition of radyl chain (# of carbons and double bonds), diacyl versus plasmalogen species, and hydroxylation of species. Finally, a MALDI-ion mobility imaging run was conducted in negative ion mode, resulting in the successful ion mapping of several lipid species.

Characterization of acyl chain position in unsaturated phosphatidylcholines using differential mobility-mass spectrometry

Glycerophospholipids (GPs) that differ in the relative position of the two fatty acyl chains on the glycerol backbone (i.e., sn-positional isomers) can have distinct physicochemical properties. The unambiguous assignment of acyl chain position to an individual GP represents a significant analytical challenge. Here we describe a workflow where phosphatidylcholines (PCs) are subjected to ESI for characterization by a combination of differential mobility spectrometry and MS (DMS-MS). When infused as a mixture, ions formed from silver adduction of each phospholipid isomer {e.g., [PC (16:0/18:1) + Ag](+) and [PC (18:1/16:0) + Ag](+)} are transmitted through the DMS device at discrete compensation voltages. Varying their relative amounts allows facile and unambiguous assignment of the sn-positions of the fatty acyl chains for each isomer. Integration of the well-resolved ion populations provides a rapid method (< 3 min) for relative quantification of these lipid isomers. The DMS-MS results show excellent agreement with established, but time-consuming, enzymatic approaches and also provide superior accuracy to methods that rely on MS alone. The advantages of this DMS-MS method in identification and quantification of GP isomer populations is demonstrated by direct analysis of complex biological extracts without any prior fractionation.

Differential ion mobility separations in up to 100% helium using microchips

The performance of differential IMS (FAIMS) analyzers is much enhanced by gases comprising He, especially He/N2 mixtures. However, electrical breakdown has limited the He fraction to ~50%-75%, depending on the field strength. By the Paschen law, the threshold field for breakdown increases at shorter distances. This allows FAIMS using chips with microscopic channels to utilize much stronger field intensities (E) than "full-size" analyzers with wider gaps. Here we show that those chips can employ higher He fractions up to 100%. Use of He-rich gases improves the resolution and resolution/sensitivity balance substantially, although less than for full-size analyzers. The optimum He fraction is ~80%, in line with first-principles theory. Hence, one can now measure the dependences of ion mobility on E in pure He, where ion-molecule cross section calculations are much more tractable than in other gases that form deeper and more complex interaction potentials. This capability may facilitate quantitative modeling of high-field ion mobility behavior and, thus, FAIMS separation properties, which would enable a priori extraction of structural information about the ions.

Measuring the effect of ion-induced drift-gas polarization on the electrical mobilities of multiply-charged ionic liquid nanodrops in air

The electrical mobilities of multiply-charged nanodrops of the ionic liquid 1-ethyl, 3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide (EMI-N[CN]2) were accurately measured in air at 20 °C for mass-selected clusters of composition [EMI-N[CN]2] n [EMI(+)] z , with 2 ≤ n ≤ 369 and 1 ≤ z ≤ 10. We confirm prior reports that the mobility Z of a globular ion of mass m is given approximately by the modified Stokes-Millikan law for spheres, Z  =  Z SM,mod (d m   +  d g , z, m), where d m   =  (6m/πρ)(1/3) is the nanodrop mass-diameter based on the density ρ of the liquid (corrected for the capillary compression and electrostatic deformation of the nanodrop), and d g is an effective air molecule diameter. There is however a measurable (up to 7%) and systematic z-dependent departure of Z from Z SM,mod . As theoretically expected at small ε (*) , this effect is accurately described by a simple correction factor of the form Z/Z SM,mod   =  δ(1  -  βε (*)), where kTε (*) is the potential energy due to the ion-induced dipole (polarization) attraction between a perfectly-conducting charged nanodrop and a polarized neutral gas-molecule at a distance (d m   +  d g )/2 from its center. An excellent fit of this model to hundreds of data points is found for d g ≈ 0.26 nm, β ≈ 0.36, and δ ≈ 0.954. Accounting for the effect of polarization decreases d g considerably with respect to values inferred from earlier nanodrop measurements that ignored this effect. In addition, and in spite of ambiguities in the mobility calibration scale, the measured constant δ smaller than unity increases Millikan's drag enhancement factor from the accepted value ξ m ≈ 1.36 to the new value ξ ≈ ξ m /δ ≈ 1.42  ± 0.03.

High-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry with solvent vapor addition: a potential greener bioanalytical technique

Green chemistry is a way to avoid threats to human health and the environment in chemical processes, including analytical methodology. According to the 12 principles provided by ACS Green Chemistry Institute, first described by Anastas and Warner, prevention of waste generation should be first considered as an alternative to ways of treating waste. Therefore, analytical techniques that may reduce solvent waste are of great interest towards greener analysis. High-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) utilizes electrical fields to achieve separation, post an ionization source, and could provide an alternative method for separation and reduce solvent use in comparison with traditional HPLC methodologies. In this article, the operational principles and developments of FAIMS will be discussed, including the advantages of adding solvent vapor to the carrier gas. In addition, applications and challenges of implementing FAIMS technology will also be discussed.

Predicting compensation voltage for singly-charged ions in high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS)

Correlation between compensation voltage (CV) and the m/z ratio of singly-charged ions was elucidated. The experimental data for various alkylammonium homologues and various pharmaceutical compounds were used to construct empirical calibration curves that were fit using commercial regression analysis software packages. The best fit equations were applied to calculate the CV differences (ΔCV) in pure N(2) and N(2)/He 50/50 carrier gasses and CV values for a variety of compounds using only m/z values. The calculated values were in good agreement with experimental data and ΔCV values exhibited a very strong correlation with m/z. Application of these empirical calculations may provide a powerful CV prediction tool for researchers using high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) and increase the value of FAIMS as an analytical method.

Time to face the fats: what can mass spectrometry reveal about the structure of lipids and their interactions with proteins?

Since the 1950s, X-ray crystallography has been the mainstay of structural biology, providing detailed atomic-level structures that continue to revolutionize our understanding of protein function. From recent advances in this discipline, a picture has emerged of intimate and specific interactions between lipids and proteins that has driven renewed interest in the structure of lipids themselves and raised intriguing questions as to the specificity and stoichiometry in lipid-protein complexes. Herein we demonstrate some of the limitations of crystallography in resolving critical structural features of ligated lipids and thus determining how these motifs impact protein binding. As a consequence, mass spectrometry must play an important and complementary role in unraveling the complexities of lipid-protein interactions. We evaluate recent advances and highlight ongoing challenges towards the twin goals of (1) complete structure elucidation of low, abundant, and structurally diverse lipids by mass spectrometry alone, and (2) assignment of stoichiometry and specificity of lipid interactions within protein complexes.

Lipids of plant membrane rafts

Lipids tend to organize in mono or bilayer phases in a hydrophilic environment. While they have long been thought to be incapable of coherent lateral segregation, it is now clear that spontaneous assembly of these compounds can confer microdomain organization beyond spontaneous fluidity. Membrane raft microdomains have the ability to influence spatiotemporal organization of protein complexes, thereby allowing regulation of cellular processes. In this review, we aim at summarizing briefly: (i) the history of raft discovery in animals and plants, (ii) the main findings about structural and signalling plant lipids involved in raft segregation, (iii) imaging of plant membrane domains, and their biochemical purification through detergent-insoluble membranes, as well as the existing debate on the topic. We also discuss the potential involvement of rafts in the regulation of plant physiological processes, and further discuss the prospects of future research into plant membrane rafts.