An alternative name for ergosterol, a steroid compound found in fungi and yeast that functions similarly to cholesterol in plant cells.
From 'ergot' and the chemical suffix '-in' combined with 'sterol'. This term represents an older nomenclature for what is now more commonly called ergosterol in modern biochemistry.
Ergosterin was the original name for the compound that makes bread mold grow—it's chemically similar to cholesterol but designed to work in fungal cells instead of human ones.
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