The LIPID MAPS® Structure Database (LMSD) is a relational database encompassing structures and annotations of biologically relevant lipids. As of today, LMSD contains 50572 unique lipid structures, making it the largest public lipid-only database in the world.
Structures of lipids in the database come from several sources: (i) LIPID MAPS® Consortium's core laboratories and partners; (ii) lipids identified by LIPID MAPS® experiments; (iii) biologically relevant lipids manually curated from LIPID BANK, LIPIDAT, Lipid Library, Cyberlipids, ChEBI and other public sources; (iv) novel lipids submitted to peer-reviewed journals; (v) computationally generated structures for appropriate classes.
All the lipid structures in LMSD adhere to the structure drawing rules proposed by the LIPID MAPS® consortium and are curated according to our protocols. All lipids in the LMSD have been classified using the LIPID MAPS® Lipid Classification System. Each lipid structure has been assigned a LIPID MAPS® ID (LM_ID). In addition to a classification-based retrieval of lipids, users can search LMSD using either text-based or structure-based search options.
Questions regarding the submission of structures should be submitted via our Contact page.
At the point of curation, a new structure and associated metadata will receive a time/date stamp held in the database. This is displayed on the webpage as “created at”, though only date is displayed. The curation interface enables changes to metadata and/or structure and these are time/date stamped and displayed on the webpage as “updated at”. Changes to lipid structures are rare (~1%) resulting from errors or adding chirality to an existing structure where new evidence is found.
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