Challenges and perspectives for naming lipids in the context of lipidomics

Introduction: Lipids are key compounds in the study of metabolism and are increasingly studied in biology projects. It is a very broad family that encompasses many compounds, and the name of the same compound may vary depending on the community where they are studied. Objectives: In addition, their structures are varied and complex, which complicates their analysis. Indeed, the structural resolution does not always allow a complete level of annotation so the actual compound analysed will vary from study to study and should be clearly stated. For all these reasons the identification and naming of lipids is complicated and very variable from one study to another, it needs to be harmonized. Methods & Results: In this position paper we will present and discuss the different way to name lipids (with chemoinformatic and semantic identifiers) and their importance to share lipidomic results. Conclusion: Homogenising this identification and adopting the same rules is essential to be able to share data within the community and to map data on functional networks.