Sea cucumbers are squishy and soft. They also employ lethal strategies to protect themselves.
But this chemical defense creates a big problem for sea cucumbers: They need to avoid killing themselves with their own toxins. And that means their own cells can’t contain cholesterol, the target that the saponins bind to and pierce. Instead, they have evolved two kinds of cholesterol alternatives: lathosterol and 9 sterols, which probably fulfill the same function of maintaining cell membrane stability.
The team discovered that sea cucumbers just don’t have it. Instead, they have two enzymes that are from the same family but are drastically different in biological function: One gives rise to the saponins found in juvenile sea cucumbers, the other creates their cholesterol alternative and also generates saponins found in their outer walls.
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