Cvt vesicle

GO:0033107 · Membrane organelle · Membrane bounded organelle · Proposed

A cytosolic vesicle that is enclosed by a double membrane and is implicated in the cytoplasm to vacuole targeting pathway. These vesicles are found in the yeast S. cerevisiae, and contain vacuolar hydrolases, aminopeptidase I (Ape1p) and alpha-mannosidase (Ams1p). [GO:0033107]

Synonyms: cytoplasm to vacuole targeting vesicle; cytoplasm-to-vacuole targeting vesicle

Has part: Cvt vesicle membrane (GO:0033110)

Xrefs: uniprot.location:SL-0080 — Cvt vesicle

UniProt location names: UniProt Consortium, CC BY 4.0. Reference label and route sources.

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
Cvt vesicle membrane	Lipid	part of	`GO:0033110`			ESSENTIAL	One of the two lipid bilayers surrounding the Cvt vesicle before vesicle-vacuole fusion. `GO:0033110` GO:0033110 defines the Cvt vesicle membrane as either lipid bilayer surrounding a Cvt vesicle. `PMID:15004240` Reggiori et al. 2004 describe Cvt vesicles as double-membrane cytosolic carriers in budding yeast.
Cvt complex	Protein complex	part of	`GO:0034270`			UNKNOWN	Selective vacuolar-hydrolase cargo complex that is sequestered into forming Cvt vesicles for vacuolar delivery. `GO:0034270` GO:0034270 defines the budding-yeast Cvt complex as a protein complex of preApe1p multimers involved in the Cvt pathway. `DOI:10.1074/jbc.M404399200` Shintani and Klionsky 2004 analyzed Cvt complex cargo and its effect on Cvt vesicle formation.

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — COMMON: Cvt vesicles have been characterized in budding yeast as double-membrane transport vesicles of the cytoplasm-to-vacuole targeting pathway. [PMID:15138258]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — Primary yeast model used to define the Cvt complex, Cvt vesicle formation, and secretory-pathway contributions to vesicle assembly. [PMID:15004240]

Functions

cytoplasm to vacuole targeting by the Cvt pathway GO:0032258 — Cvt vesicles selectively enclose vacuolar hydrolase cargo and deliver it from the cytoplasm to the fungal vacuole.
- GO:0032258 GO:0032258 defines Cvt-pathway delivery by Atg19-dependent formation of a Cvt complex and membrane expansion around it.
- DOI:10.1016/s1097-2765(01)00263-5 Scott et al. 2001 identified Cvt19/Atg19 as the receptor that links precursor aminopeptidase I cargo to the Cvt pathway.

Mechanism graphs

Cvt vesicles deliver hydrolase cargo to the yeast vacuole (FUNCTION)

A double Cvt vesicle membrane encloses the Cvt complex, excluding bulk cytoplasm, and the completed vesicle delivers the cargo to the fungal vacuole.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
Cvt vesicle membrane	is part of	Cvt vesicle	`GO:0033110` GO:0033110 defines the Cvt vesicle membrane as either surrounding bilayer.
Cvt complex	is enclosed by	Cvt vesicle	`GO:0032258` GO:0032258 defines the Cvt pathway as membrane expansion around the Cvt complex.
Cvt vesicle	supports	cytoplasm to vacuole targeting by the Cvt pathway	`GO:0033107` GO:0033107 defines Cvt vesicles by their implication in the Cvt pathway.
Cvt vesicle	delivers cargo to	fungal-type vacuole	`PMID:15138258` Shintani and Klionsky 2004 review Cvt cargo incorporation into forming vesicles before vacuolar delivery.

Discussions

CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve exact source-neutral identifiers for the Atg19 receptor, Atg11 scaffold, Atg8-lipidation system and Atg9 membrane traffic before adding these assembly factors as Cvt-vesicle-associated machinery. This first Cvt vesicle record grounds the membrane and the sequestered Cvt cargo complex exactly, while leaving Atg proteins that organize vesicle formation out of the component table until exact family or complex identifiers can be verified.

Evidence

GO:0033107 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the Cvt vesicle.
GO:0033110 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for either bilayer of the Cvt vesicle membrane.
GO:0034270 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the Cvt complex.
GO:0032258 Gene Ontology biological-process term for cytoplasm to vacuole targeting by the Cvt pathway.
uniprot.location:SL-0080 — Cvt vesicle UniProt Subcellular Location entry that maps Cvt vesicle to GO:0033107.
DOI:10.1074/jbc.M404399200 Shintani and Klionsky 2004, Cargo proteins facilitate the formation of transport vesicles in the cytoplasm to vacuole targeting pathway, Journal of Biological Chemistry.
DOI:10.1091/mbc.e03-07-0479 Reggiori et al. 2004, Early stages of the secretory pathway, but not endosomes, are required for Cvt vesicle and autophagosome assembly in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Molecular Biology of the Cell.
DOI:10.1016/s1097-2765(01)00263-5 Scott et al. 2001, Cvt19 is a receptor for the cytoplasm-to-vacuole targeting pathway, Molecular Cell.

Curation history

2026-09-12T13:35:23Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-12T13:36:10Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added exact GO synonymy, cytoplasmic vesicle parentage, the Cvt vesicle membrane part, a UniProt Subcellular Location xref, membrane and Cvt-complex components, Saccharomyces cerevisiae scope, Cvt-pathway function, DOI/GO/UniProt evidence, a nonmechanistic cargo-delivery graph, and an Atg-machinery grounding TODO.
2026-09-12T13:41:50Z codex · FIXED_DISCUSSION_ANCHOR — Retargeted the Atg-machinery discussion from the generic components section to components#cvt_complex so the anchor resolves under the corpus discussion-anchor invariant.
2026-09-12T13:47:40Z codex · ADDRESS_REVIEW — Resolved #655 by making the cargo-enclosure edge point from the Cvt complex to the whole vesicle and by describing GO:0033110 as one of two surrounding bilayers; resolved #656 by detaching the Atg-machinery TODO from the Cvt complex cargo component.

Source: data/structures/membrane_organelle/cvt_vesicle.yaml