In biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

, a transaminase or an aminotransferase is an enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

 that catalyzes a type of reaction between an amino acid

Amino acid

Amino acids are molecules containing an amine group, a carboxylic acid group and a side-chain that varies between different amino acids. The key elements of an amino acid are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...

 and an α-keto acid. To be specific, this reaction (transamination

Transamination

There are two chemical reactions known as transamination . The first is the reaction between an amino acid and an alpha-keto acid...

) involves removing the amino group from the amino acid, leaving behind an α-keto acid, and transferring it to the reactant α-keto acid and converting it into an amino acid. Some transamination activities of the ribosome

Ribosome

A ribosome is a component of cells that assembles the twenty specific amino acid molecules to form the particular protein molecule determined by the nucleotide sequence of an RNA molecule....

 have been found to be catalyzed by so called ribozymes (RNA enzymes).