Ferroptosis is a cell death modality triggered by excessive lipid peroxidation. Two recent studies (Zou et al., 2020; Cui et al., 2021) not only reveal critical roles of ether-linked phospholipids as an additional source for providing polyunsaturated fatty acid-containing phospholipids in driving ferroptosis but also suggest a context-dependent role of TMEM189-mediated vinyl-ether phospholipid (plasmalogen) synthesis in ferroptosis.
Copyright © 2021 Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Genetics Society of China. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Conflict of interest Boyi Gan is an inventor on patent applications involving targeting ferroptosis in cancer therapy. The other authors declare no competing interests.