Involved in biosynthesis of the broad-spectrum antibiotic dehydrophos.
The reaction is catalyzed by the N-terminal domain of the DhpH gene product. The [1-oxo-ethyl]-phosphonate, generated by this reaction is used as a substrate by DhpD, a second PLP-dependent enzyme in the dehydrophos pathway.
In turn, the DhpD product (1-amino-phosphonoethane) is condensed with a Leu molecule by the C-terminal domain of DhpH.