Function
It catalyzes the transfer of an amino group from alanine to α-ketoglutarate, the products of this reversible transamination reaction being pyruvate and glutamate.
- glutamate + pyruvate ⇌ α-ketoglutarate + alanine
ALT (and all transaminases) require the coenzyme pyridoxal-phosphate, which is converted into pyridoxamine in the first phase of the reaction, when an amino acid is converted into a keto acid.
Read more about this topic: Alanine Transaminase
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“The uses of travel are occasional, and short; but the best fruit it finds, when it finds it, is conversation; and this is a main function of life.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We are thus able to distinguish thinking as the function which is to a large extent linguistic.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)
““... The state’s one function is to give.
The bud must bloom till blowsy blown
Its petals loosen and are strown;
And that’s a fate it can’t evade
Unless ‘twould rather wilt than fade.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)