A reference map of sphingolipids in murine tissues
Sneha Muralidharan,
Mitsugu Shimobayashi,
Shanshan Ji,
Bo Burla,
Michael N. Hall,
Markus R. Wenk,
Federico Torta
Affiliations
Sneha Muralidharan
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 16 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117558, Singapore; Singapore Lipidomics Incubator, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117456, Singapore
Mitsugu Shimobayashi
Biozentrum – Center for Molecular Life Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Shanshan Ji
Singapore Lipidomics Incubator, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117456, Singapore
Bo Burla
Singapore Lipidomics Incubator, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117456, Singapore
Michael N. Hall
Biozentrum – Center for Molecular Life Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Markus R. Wenk
Singapore Lipidomics Incubator, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117456, Singapore; Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 28 Medical Drive, Singapore 117456, Singapore; Corresponding author
Federico Torta
Singapore Lipidomics Incubator, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117456, Singapore; Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 28 Medical Drive, Singapore 117456, Singapore; Corresponding author
Summary: Sphingolipids (SPs) have both a structural role in the cell membranes and a signaling function that regulates many cellular processes. The enormous structural diversity and low abundance of many SPs pose a challenge for their identification and quantification. Recent advances in lipidomics, in particular liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS), provide methods to detect and quantify many low-abundant SP species reliably. Here we use LC-MS to compile a “murine sphingolipid atlas,” containing the qualitative and quantitative distribution of 114 SPs in 21 tissues of a widely utilized wild-type laboratory mouse strain (C57BL/6). We report tissue-specific SP fingerprints, as well as sex-specific differences in the same tissue. This is a comprehensive, quantitative sphingolipidomic map of mammalian tissues collected in a systematic fashion. It will complement other tissue compendia for interrogation into the role of SP in mammalian health and disease.
