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Sterols and related compounds play essential roles in the physiology of eukaryotic organisms, and are essential for normal physiology of plants, animals, and fungi. [8] For example, cholesterol forms part of the cellular membrane in animals, where it affects the cell membrane's fluidity and serves as secondary messenger in developmental signaling.
Cholesterol is the principal sterol of all higher animals, distributed in body tissues, especially the brain and spinal cord, and in animal fats and oils. [3] [4]Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells [citation needed] and is an essential structural and signaling component of animal cell membranes.
Ergosterol (ergosta-5,7,22-trien-3β-ol) is a sterol found in fungi, and named after ergot, the common name of members of the fungal genus Claviceps from which ergosterol was first isolated. Ergosterol is a component of yeast and other fungal cell membranes, serving many of the same functions that cholesterol serves in animal cells. [1]
The predominant sterol in fungal cell membranes is ergosterol. [46] Sterols are steroids in which one of the hydrogen atoms is substituted with a hydroxyl group, at position 3 in the carbon chain. They have in common with steroids the same fused four-ring core structure.
The best known sterol is cholesterol, which is found in humans. Cholesterol also occurs naturally in other eukaryote cell membranes. Sterols have a hydrophobic four-membered fused ring rigid structure, and a small polar head group. Cholesterol is bio-synthesised from mevalonate via a squalene cyclisation of terpenoids.
Ergosterol is a component of fungal cell membranes, serving the same function in fungi that cholesterol serves in animal cells. In addition: Esterification of the hydroxyl group at carbon 3 with fatty/organic acids or carbohydrates results in plant sterol esters , i.e. oleates, ferulates and (acyl) glycosides.
Phospholipids are a key component of all cell membranes. They can form lipid bilayers because of their amphiphilic characteristic. In eukaryotes, cell membranes also contain another class of lipid, sterol, interspersed among the phospholipids. The combination provides fluidity in two dimensions combined with mechanical strength against rupture.
Stigmasterol is a food additive in manufactured food products in the United Kingdom and European Union. [7]It was introduced as a precursor by Percy Lavon Julian for industrial large-scale manufacture of semisynthetic progesterone, [8] [9] [10] a valuable human hormone that plays an important physiological role in the regulatory and tissue rebuilding mechanisms related to estrogen effects, as ...