The 3 substrates of this enzyme are ATP, L-tyrosine, and RNA, whereas its 3 products are AMP, diphosphate, and L-tyrosyl-tRNA(Tyr).
This enzyme belongs to the family of ligases, to be specific those forming carbon-oxygen bonds in aminoacyl-tRNA and related compounds. The systematic name of this enzyme class is L-tyrosine:tRNATyr ligase (AMP-forming). This enzyme participates in phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis and aminoacyl-trna biosynthesis.