“…Examples include etheric membrane lipids from Archaea, [2] ladderane membrane lipids from anaerobic ammonia-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria, [3] paramecyl alcohol from ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, [4] diacylglyceryl ether from marine animals, [5] betaine lipids from micro-and macroorganisms except seed-bearing plants or metazoans, [6] plasmalogens, [7] seminolipids, [8] and platelet-activating factor [9] from mammals (Figure 1). The physiological roles of these molecules are yet fully understood, but some are known to be associated with the ability to adapt to extreme environments such as high temperature, low pH, high salinity, [10] and phosphorous deprivation, [11,12] or a variety of biological events including ATP synthesis, [13] establishment of infection, [14] phagocytosis, [15] to acquire buoyance in the deep sea, [16][17][18] spermatogenesis, [19] immunity, [7] neuronal development, [7] lens organization, lens transparency, [20] and for radical scavenging. [7] In mammals, deficiencies in ether lipid biosynthesis cause two serious congenital disorders, rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata (RCDP) and Zellweger spectrum disorders, and lower ether lipid levels in serum or tissues are associated with a range of neurological and metabolic diseases [21] including Alzheimer's disease (AD), schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease (PD), Down syndrome, Gaucher disease, Niemann-Pick type C disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.…”