Ozone-enabled fatty acid discovery reveals unexpected diversity in the human lipidome

Fatty acid isomers are responsible for an under-reported lipidome diversity across all kingdoms of life. Isomers of unsaturated fatty acids are often masked in contemporary analysis by incomplete separation and the absence of sufficiently diagnostic methods for structure elucidation. Here, we introduce a comprehensive workflow, to discover unsaturated fatty acids through coupling liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry with gas-phase ozonolysis of double bonds. The workflow encompasses semi-automated data analysis and enables de novo identification in complex media including human plasma, cancer cell lines and vernix caseosa. The targeted analysis including ozonolysis enables structural assignment over a dynamic range of five orders of magnitude, even in instances of incomplete chromatographic separation. Thereby we expand the number of identified plasma fatty acids two-fold, including non-methylene-interrupted fatty acids. Detection, without prior knowledge, allows discovery of non-canonical double bond positions. Changes in relative isomer abundances reflect underlying perturbations in lipid metabolism.