Future perspectives in mass spectrometry of plant lipids

Important topics of plant lipidomic research include the standardization of protocols for quantification, and the analysis of subcellular distribution of common and unusual lipids, both in Arabidopsis and non-model species. Plant lipid research has seen a tremendous progress in the last decades, particularly in the area of lipid analytics by mass spectrometry. This includes the characterization of the different lipid classes involved in the establishment of the membrane bilayer, in carbon storage, and signaling. Advances in mass spectrometry have transformed the landscape of plant lipid research, enabling large scale studies of complex lipids at the level of individual molecular species, with minimal efforts of sample preparation. Lipidomic technologies employ targeted approaches to analyze known lipid molecular species as well as non-targeted methods to identify lipids that accumulate differentially in specific sample sets. Lipid quantification requires the availability of appropriate standards and highly sensitive methods of mass spectrometry. Additional technologies have been developed to study the spatial distribution of lipids in plant tissues, as well as to identify and characterize unusual lipids in plant cells. Finally, the large amounts of data generated in plant lipid research require sophisticated databases that connect the 'omics' data with data on growth, development, and adaptive responses to stress conditions at the tissue, cellular, and subcellular levels.