Jason

Brain maps usually show genes or cell types. Membrane lipids, which are essential for synaptic transmission and whose altered composition is linked to many brain diseases, remained poorly mapped by comparison. Fusar Bassini, La Manno and colleagues asked whether lipids simply follow the brain’s known anatomy or reveal an organization of their own. They measured 172 lipids across the whole mouse brain and found 539 chemically distinct territories, which they call lipizones. Most overlap known cell-type territories, but lipid patterns could be only partly predicted from gene expression. Regions connected by axons, even distant ones, were more likely to share lipid signatures. In pregnant mice, the white matter and specific cortical territories changed their lipid composition. The map is public, so other labs can use it to locate where lipid changes occur in disease, which gene-expression maps cannot show. As a descriptive resource, it does not test what these territories do for neural function, and the pregnancy comparison rests on a small number of mice. Fig. 1 from Fusar Bassini et al. (2026), Nature. CC BY 4.0.