Physiological and biochemical studies on fermentative production of Ergosterol

Abstract

Sterols are essential components to all eukaryotic cells and are present in two forms as free sterols and steryl esters. Free sterols are located mainly in the plasma membrane, where they are very important for the fluidity and permeability of the membrane and have various effects on the activities of membrane-bound proteins. The steryl esters are sequestered in cytosolic lipid particles, where they play an important role in sterol homeostasis (Lamačka and Šajbidor, 1997; Shobayashi et al., 2005; and Yuan et al.,2006). The predominant sterol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is ergosterol Fig(1),