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Updated: Apr 8, 2026
Analysis of the Lipid Composition of Mycobacteria by Thin Layer Chromatography
Published on: April 16, 2021
Mycobacterial Lipidomics
Emilie Layre1, Reem Al-Mubarak2, John T Belisle2
1Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.
Abstract:
Lipidomics is a distinct subspecialty of metabolomics concerned with hydrophobic molecules that organize into membranes. Most of the lipid classes present in Mycobacterium tuberculosis are found only in Actinobacteria and show extreme structural diversity. This article highlights the conceptual basis and the practical challenges associated with the mass spectrometry-based lipidomic study of M. tuberculosis to solve basic questions about the virulence of this lipid-laden organism.
