Kutty,
It has been known for a long time that pyruvate goes to the mitochondria, because glycolysis (occurs in cytosol) which produces pyruvate is a substrate in Krebs cycle, that occurs in mitochondria...
Transporter has been eluded scientist for a long time... but look at this paper.
1: Biochem J. 2003 Sep 15;374(Pt 3):607-11.
Comment in:
Biochem J. 2003 Sep 15;374(Pt 3):e1-2.
Identification of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Hildyard JC, Halestrap AP.
Department of Biochemistry, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol,
Bristol BS8 1TD, UK.
Mitochondrial pyruvate transport is fundamental for metabolism and mediated by a specific inhibitable carrier. We have identified the yeast mitochondrial pyruvate carrier by measuring inhibitor-sensitive pyruvate uptake into mitochondria from 18 different Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants, each lacking an unattributed member of the mitochondrial carrier family (MCF). Only mitochondria from the YIL006w deletion mutant exhibited no inhibitor-sensitive pyruvate transport, but otherwise behaved normally. YIL006w encodes a 41.9 kDa MCF member with homologous proteins present in both the human and mouse genomes.
PMCID: PMC1223651
PMID: 12887330
Cheers