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Isoleucine
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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. Diagram showing how point mutations, or single nucleotide changes in a codon, result in different amino acids in a protein. The central isoleucine codon (AUA) is surrounded by other codons, each differing by one nucleotide, with corresponding amino acid molecular structures and color-coded atoms.
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Isoleucine

chemical compound
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Isoleucine, an amino acid present in most common proteins, sometimes comprising 2 to 10 percent by weight. First isolated in 1904 from fibrin, a protein involved in blood-clot formation, isoleucine is one of several so-called essential amino acids for chicks, rats, and other higher animals, including humans; i.e., they cannot synthesize it and require dietary sources. In microorganisms and plants, isoleucine is synthesized from the amino acid threonine.

The chemical structure of isoleucine isisoleucine, chemical compound

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Kara Rogers.