Muro Eleonora, Atilla-Gokcumen G Ekin, Eggert Ulrike S
Department of Chemistry and Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics, King's College London, London SE1 1UL, United Kingdom.
Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260.
Mol Biol Cell. 2014 Jun 15;25(12):1819-23. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E13-09-0516.
Lipids are a major class of biological molecules and play many key roles in different processes. The diversity of lipids is on the same order of magnitude as that of proteins: cells express tens of thousands of different lipids and hundreds of proteins to regulate their metabolism and transport. Despite their clear importance and essential functions, lipids have not been as well studied as proteins. We discuss here some of the reasons why it has been challenging to study lipids and outline technological developments that are allowing us to begin lifting lipids out of their "Cinderella" status. We focus on recent advances in lipid identification, visualization, and investigation of their biophysics and perturbations and suggest that the field has sufficiently advanced to encourage broader investigation into these intriguing molecules.
脂质是一类主要的生物分子，在不同过程中发挥着许多关键作用。脂质的多样性与蛋白质的多样性处于同一数量级：细胞表达数以万计的不同脂质和数百种蛋白质来调节它们的代谢和运输。尽管脂质具有明确的重要性和基本功能，但对其研究不如蛋白质深入。我们在此讨论研究脂质具有挑战性的一些原因，并概述使我们能够开始让脂质摆脱其“灰姑娘”地位的技术发展。我们关注脂质鉴定、可视化以及其生物物理学和扰动研究方面的最新进展，并认为该领域已经取得了足够的进展，足以鼓励对这些有趣分子进行更广泛的研究。
