Ether phospholipids govern ferroptosis

Abstract 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.