Acts on the D-isomers of alanine, leucine, aspartate, glutamate, aminobutyrate, norvaline and asparagine. The enzyme transfers an amino group from a substrate D-amino acid to the pyridoxal phosphate cofactor to form pyridoxamine andan alpha- keto acid in the first half-reaction. The second half-reaction is the reverse of the first, transferring the amino group from the pyridoxamine to a second alpha-keto acid to form the product D- amino acid via a ping-pong mechanism. This is an important process in the formation of D-alanine and D-glutamate, which are essential bacterial cell wall components (By similarity).