[1] The domain was initially discovered in 2002 by Yeats and colleagues as a region of sequence similarity found in penicillin binding proteins and PknB-like kinases found in some bacteria.

The name is an acronym derived from PBP and Serine/Threonine kinase Associated domain.

The PASTA domain adopts a structure composed of an alpha-helix followed by three beta strands.

Recent structural studies show that the extracellular region of PknB (protein kinase B) that is composed of four PASTA domains shows a linear arrangement of the domains.

[2] PASTA domains are found in a variety of bacterial species including gram-positive Bacillota and Actinomycetota.