Piezolyte (n.): an organic molecule, found in organisms in shallow and deep water where it encounters hydrostatic pressure and osmotic pressure, that helps deep sea organisms to cope with the pressure.
In addition, I also need to define osmosis.
Osmosis (n.): a process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution to into a more concentrated one, thus equalizing the concentrations on each side of the membrane.
Piezolyte comes from the Greek piezo or piezein, "to press, squeeze," and the Greek lytos, "soluble." Osmosis comes from the Greek osmos, "a push." A piezolyte is a specialized form of osmolyte. An osmolyte, in intracellular liquid, regulates cell properties like cell volume in response to osmotic pressure. Piezolytes do the same thing but in response to both osmotic pressure, which is the pressure that would have to be applied to a pure solvent to prevent it from passing into a given solution by osmosis, and hydrostatic pressure, which is the pressure exerted by liquid at rest. Piezolytes have been found in both deep sea microbes and deep sea crustaceans. It is still unknown exactly how piezolytes help deep sea organisms to live in habitats with crushing pressure.
Bibliography
Axel. "A term in phsyiology: piezolyte for an osmolyte whose cellular levels respond to hydrostatic and osmotic pressure." Latintos. 13 May 2012. Axel. 21 March 2013. <http://golatintos.blogspot.com/2012/05/term-in-physiology-piezolyte-for.html>
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