I'm a biology student and in our syllabus we have to know what enantiostasis is. It defines enantiostasis as the maintenance of metabolic and physiological functions in response to variations in the environment. My question is, is this a new term invented entirely by the Board of Studies (New South Wales' (in Australia) education thingo). I looked it up on the internet and the only sites I can find are all related to our HSC (NSW's SATs). I'm getting suspicious.

 

Has anyone heard of enantiostasis? I can barely even find a rational definition of it, every website has the same definition (damned plagiarism). Here's the board of studies explanation of its syllabus. http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/science_sup.pdf, it's a fair way down, so just ctrl+f and type enantiostasis.

I've never heard of that. Usually, it's called 'homeostasis.'

Homeostasis

the ability of an organisms to harness mechanisms for the preservation or maintenance of an almost constant internal state in the face of external perturbations.

 

Enantiostasis

the ability of an organisms to harness mechanisms for the preservation or maintenance of an almost constant functional state in the face of external perturbations.

 

 

So the difference is an "internal" state, vs a "functional" state.

From what I've been able to figure out, the difference is this.

 

An organism employing enantiostasis does not employ homeostasis for example, in a mangrove the salt changes with the tide. A homeostasis organism would keep the salt the same so no enzymes are affected. An enantiostasis organism allows is salt concentration to change with its environment (hence saving energy) however it also changes something else (such as pH) so that the enzymes which are negatively affected by the salt are positively affected by the pH, so they continue to work. That way the internal environment is not maintained, but a functional state is maintained.

 

Although I am intrigued (and suspicious of the BOS) that you haven't heard of enantiostasis before coquina. I'd thought you fairly knowledgeable in biology generally.

Thanks coquina. Your post was really helpful. I'm also doing biology and just thought I'd let you know, enantiostasis IS NOT the same as homeostasis. And its not a made up term, although it seems they make up words sometimes!

I'm doing biology in NSW, and I've had two teachers this year. Neither of them knew what enantiostasis was. Thank you for your definition, coquina