The pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex in the mitochondrial matrix catalyzes the reaction of pyruvate, CoA-SH, and NAD+ to form acetyl-CoA, CO2, and NADH + H+. Multiple rice genes capable of encoding proteins closely similar to Arabidopsis thaliana PDH E1 alpha, E1 beta, E2, and E3 proteins have been identified in the rice genomic sequence, and some components of the complex have been identified by immunochemical (Taylor et al. 2010) and mass spectroscopic (Taylor et al. 2004) studies of proteins isolated from rice mitochondria, but details of the structure and function of the rice PDH complex are inferred from experimental studies of other plant PDH complexes (Mooney et al. 2002).
