Before revision:  Here, we employed molecular dynamics simulations to compare the effects of cholesterol and ergosterol  on binary mixtures with saturated 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) lipids. Our simulations with varying sterol concentrations and temperatures revealed that while both sterols were able to induce the formation of liquid ordered membrane domains, cholesterol had a noticeably stronger impact on lipids condensing and ordering .
After revision:  Here, we employed molecular dynamics simulations to compare the effects of cholesterol and ergosterol on binary mixtures with saturated 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) as a proxy for saturated lipids. In agreement with previous work, we observe that the addition of sterol molecules modifies the order of DPPC both in the gel phase and in the liquid phase. When disentangling systematic and random properties of the order parameter distribution, related to the tilt angle and the fluctuations, respectively, a more detailed picture of the impact of sterols can be formulated, revealing, e.g., an approximate temperature-concentration superposition ranging from the liquid to the gel phase. Furthermore, a new quantitative measure to identify the presence of collective sterol effects is discussed. Moreover, when comparing both types of sterols, addition of cholesterol has a noticeably stronger impact on lipids condensing and ordering .