These proteins catalyse the reversible transfer of an amino group from the amino acid substrate to an acceptor alpha-keto acid. They require pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) as a cofactor to catalyse this reaction. Trans-amination reactions are of central importance in amino acid metabolism and in links to carbohydrate and fat metabolism. This class of amino-transferases acts as dimers in a head-to-tail configuration. It has been demonstrated that these proteins are aspartate amino-transferases from Bacteria (Jansen, R.S. et al. Nat Commun 11, 1960 (2020)) [1].

1: Structural Insights into a Novel Class of Aspartate Aminotransferase from Corynebacterium glutamicum. Son HF, Kim KJ; PLoS One. 2016;11:e0158402. PMID:27355211