endocytic vesicle

GO:0030139 · Membrane organelle · Membrane bounded organelle · Proposed

A membrane-bounded intracellular vesicle formed by invagination of the plasma membrane around an extracellular substance. Endocytic vesicles fuse with early endosomes to deliver the cargo for further sorting. [GO:0030139]

Has part: endocytic vesicle membrane (GO:0030666); endocytic vesicle lumen (GO:0071682)

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

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — COMMON: Budding yeast forms clathrin- and actin-mediated endocytic vesicles at cortical endocytic sites. [DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2005.04.014]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — Budding-yeast model used to resolve the ordered cortical module dynamics that accompany endocytic vesicle formation. [DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.024]

Functions

endocytosis GO:0006897 — Endocytic vesicles are membrane-bounded carriers produced by plasma-membrane invagination during uptake of external material or membrane constituents.
- GO:0006897 GO:0006897 defines endocytosis as uptake through plasma-membrane invagination to form a new membrane-bounded vesicle.
- GO:0030139 GO:0030139 defines endocytic vesicles as membrane-bounded intracellular vesicles produced by plasma-membrane invagination.

Mechanism graphs

Endocytic vesicle topology (FUNCTION)

The endocytic vesicle membrane bounds the endocytic vesicle lumen inside an endocytic vesicle that forms during endocytosis.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
endocytic vesicle membrane	is part of	endocytic vesicle	`GO:0030666` GO:0030666 identifies the membrane surrounding an endocytic vesicle. `GO:0030139` GO:0030139 identifies the containing endocytic vesicle.
endocytic vesicle lumen	is part of	endocytic vesicle	`GO:0071682` GO:0071682 identifies the volume enclosed by an endocytic vesicle membrane. `GO:0030139` GO:0030139 identifies the enclosing endocytic vesicle.
endocytic vesicle membrane	bounds	endocytic vesicle lumen	`GO:0030666` GO:0030666 identifies the membrane surrounding an endocytic vesicle. `GO:0071682` GO:0071682 defines the endocytic vesicle lumen by enclosure within the vesicle membrane.
endocytic vesicle	participates in	endocytosis	`GO:0006897` GO:0006897 defines endocytosis as forming a new membrane-bounded vesicle. `GO:0030139` GO:0030139 defines an endocytic vesicle as produced by plasma-membrane invagination.

Discussions

INTERPRETATION (RESOLVED): Keep clathrin coats, subtype-specific adaptors, and internalized cargo out of the generic endocytic vesicle record. GO:0030139 spans membrane-bounded endocytic carriers independent of a specific coat or cargo set, while clathrin coats and clathrin-adaptor machinery belong on narrower clathrin-coated endocytic-vesicle records.

Evidence

GO:0030139 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for endocytic vesicles.
GO:0031410 Gene Ontology cellular-component parent term for cytoplasmic vesicles.
GO:0030666 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the endocytic vesicle membrane.
GO:0071682 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the endocytic vesicle lumen.
GO:0045334 Gene Ontology cellular-component child term for clathrin-coated endocytic vesicles.
GO:0030128 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the clathrin coat of an endocytic vesicle.
GO:0006897 Gene Ontology biological-process term for endocytosis.
DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2005.04.014 Newpher et al. 2005, In Vivo Dynamics of Clathrin and Its Adaptor-Dependent Recruitment to the Actin-Based Endocytic Machinery in Yeast, Developmental Cell.
DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.024 Kaksonen, Toret and Drubin 2005, A Modular Design for the Clathrin- and Actin-Mediated Endocytosis Machinery, Cell.

Curation history

2026-09-16T09:52:49Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-16T09:53:34Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added cytoplasmic-vesicle parentage, endocytic-vesicle membrane and lumen parts, Saccharomyces endocytic-site scope, an endocytosis function, GO/DOI evidence, a nonmechanistic membrane/lumen topology graph, and a resolved coats-and-cargo boundary discussion.
2026-09-16T10:05:20Z codex · ADDRESSED_PR_REVIEW — Resolved issue #1085 by adding GO:0045334 and GO:0030128 to the top-level evidence list used by the clathrin-specific boundary discussion.

Source: data/structures/membrane_organelle/endocytic_vesicle.yaml