Q.Name the enzyme complex that catalyses the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvic acid to acetyl CoA in the mitochondrial matrix.

Aerobic respiration is the complete oxidation of pyruvic acid (produced by glycolysis) to carbon dioxide and water in the presence of oxygen, occurring in three connected mitochondrial stages and releasing very much more usable energy than fermentation. The first stage, the link reaction (oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvic acid), takes place in the mitochondrial matrix, where the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex converts pyruvic acid to acetyl CoA, releasing CO2 and generating NADH (run twice per glucose, since two pyruvic acid molecules are produced). The resulting acetyl CoA then enters the TCA (Krebs) cycle, and the NADH and FADH2 generated by the link reaction and the TCA cycle together …