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isocitrate
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A metabolic pathway diagram for Escherichia coli showing how various nutrients-including sugars, fats, glycerol, and amino acids-are broken down into intermediates like pyruvate and acetyl-CoA, leading to the production of energy and other metabolites such as lactate, glutamate, and succinate. Arrows indicate the flow of metabolites between compounds, with key nutrient sources and products highlighted in colored boxes.
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isocitrate

chemical compound
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A metabolic pathway diagram for Escherichia coli showing how various nutrients-including sugars, fats, glycerol, and amino acids-are broken down into intermediates like pyruvate and acetyl-CoA, leading to the production of energy and other metabolites such as lactate, glutamate, and succinate. Arrows indicate the flow of metabolites between compounds, with key nutrient sources and products highlighted in colored boxes.
Catabolism in E. coli Pathways for the catabolism of nutrients by Escherichia coli.

Isocitrate is a crystalline isomer of citric acid that plays a role as an intermediate in the Krebs cycle, also known as the citric acid cycle or TCA cycle. This cycle is a fundamental part of cellular respiration, occurring in the mitochondria of most organisms.12

In the TCA cycle, acetyl coenzyme A combines with oxaloacetate to form citrate, which is then rearranged into isocitrate. Isocitrate is subsequently oxidized and loses a molecule of carbon dioxide to form alpha-ketoglutarate. This process is regulated by enzymes like isocitrate dehydrogenase, whose activity can be influenced by the energy state of the cell, indicated by levels of ADP and ATP.234

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4 Britannica Sources
  1. isocitric acid
  2. metabolism - Energy state of the cell
  3. tricarboxylic acid cycle
  4. metabolism - Formation of coenzyme A, carbon dioxide, and reducing equivalent

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