MS-LAMP: Mass Spectrometry based Lipid(ome) Analyzer and Molecular Platform  

 Mass Spectrometry based Lipid(ome) Analyzer and Molecular Platform (MS-LAMP) is a novel standalone software capable of aiding in interpreting electrospray ionization (ESI) and/or matrix assisted laser desorption and ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometric data of lipids. In the current version of the programme, two databases have been incorporated, which have been built based on the lipid databases of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) (Mtb LipidDB, Mycobacteria Research Laboratories, Colorado State University, www.mrl.colostate.edu; released in 2011) and LIPID Metabolites and Pathways Strategy Consortium (LIPID MAPS, www.lipidmaps.org; updated till June 2012). Herein, these two databases are called as ‘M. tb Lipidome MS-LAMP’ and ‘General Lipidome MS-LAMP’, respectively.

As per the recent update, General Lipidome MS-LAMP consists of 37,572 lipids, among which molecular mass is known for 37,056 and for remaining 516, molecular formula is not known. The molecular masses are in the range, 46.00548 - 4722.081313 Da. 

In M. tb Lipidome MS-LAMP, there are 2518 lipids, out of which 2512 are unique in terms of molecular mass. The molecular masses of M. tb lipids are distributed in the range, 302.2456 - 3064.9651 Da. Strikingly, there are no sterol and sphingo lipids in the current version of the database, which suggests that these lipids are yet to be discovered in this parasite or perhaps, M. tb lacks the machinery for biosynthesis of these two lipid categories. 

New ‘Lipid Groups’ namely Sulfur-containing Lipids, Halogenated Lipids, All Phospholipids are introduced. All Phospholipids group consists of subgroups, Sphingophospholipids and Other phosphorylated lipids. Glycerophospholipids (GP) is not a subgroup of All Phospholipids. The formation of these groups does not diverge from the eight-category classification scheme of LIPID MAPS. Sulfur-containing M. tb lipids are also called as Sulfolipids.

MS-LAMP has been programmed using Perl:Tk and makes use of ACD ChemSketch to show molecular structure of lipids. There is also a built-in speech capability (included using Microsoft SAPI module) that provides a brief introduction to the software. The speech properties can be altered from Window’s Control Panel.

The default directory of software installation is C:\MS-LAMP and it is mandatory to install the software in specified directory. It is recommended to install MS-Office or OpenOffice to view the output .xls file. 

For directions and queries related to use of the programme, please refer to the Help files provided within the software.

Programming and Analyses

Mr. Gurpreet Singh, Lovely Professional University, Punjab.
(Trainee during July - December, 2011 at CSIR-IGIB, Delhi)

Research, Analyses, Conception and Guidance :

Dr. V. Sabareesh, Scientist Fellow
CSIR - Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB),
IGIB Extension Centre (Naraina), A93/94, Naraina Industrial Area - Phase I,
Naraina, New Delhi - 110028.