late endosome

GO:0005770 · Membrane organelle · Membrane bounded organelle · Proposed

A prelysosomal endocytic organelle differentiated from early endosomes by lower lumenal pH and different protein composition. Late endosomes are more spherical than early endosomes and are mostly juxtanuclear, being concentrated near the microtubule organizing center. [GO:0005770]

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
late endosome limiting-membrane lipid bilayer	Lipid	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			ESSENTIAL	Lipid-bilayer constituent of the late endosome limiting membrane on which ESCRT machinery sorts membrane cargo and generates multivesicular-body intraluminal vesicles. `GO:0005770` GO defines the late endosome as an endocytic organelle with a protein composition distinct from early endosomes. `GO:0010008` GO defines the endosome membrane as the lipid bilayer surrounding an endosome. `DOI:10.1083/jcb.200302136` Katzmann et al. 2003 localized Vps27 and ESCRT-I to yeast endosomal membranes during MVB sorting.

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — COMMON: Budding yeast uses late endosome/multivesicular-body compartments for ESCRT-dependent sorting of ubiquitinated membrane cargo into intraluminal vesicles before vacuolar delivery. [PMID:11511343]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — Yeast endosomal model in which ESCRT complexes sort membrane cargo into multivesicular bodies, a late-endosome child class. [PMID:11511343]

Functions

multivesicular body sorting pathway GO:0071985 — Late endosomes can receive ubiquitinated transmembrane cargo into luminal vesicles through the ESCRT-dependent MVB sorting pathway.
- GO:0071985 GO denotes the pathway that targets ubiquitylated transmembrane proteins into multivesicular-body luminal vesicles.
- PMID:11511343 Katzmann, Babst and Emr 2001 identified ESCRT-I as a conserved yeast endosomal protein-sorting complex required for MVB cargo sorting.
late endosome vacuolar cargo delivery — Late endosomal multivesicular bodies deliver endosomal membrane cargo toward vacuolar degradation.
- DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2011.05.015 Henne, Buchkovich and Emr 2011 reviewed MVB formation as the ESCRT-dependent route that packages endosomal cargo for lysosomal or vacuolar degradation.

Mechanism graphs

Late endosomal ESCRT sorting forms intraluminal vesicles (FUNCTION)

Yeast ESCRT machinery acts at a late endosomal limiting membrane to sort ubiquitinated membrane cargo into intraluminal vesicles of multivesicular bodies.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
late endosome limiting membrane	bounds	late endosome lumen	`GO:0031904` GO defines the endosome lumen as the volume enclosed by an endosome membrane.
ESCRT I complex	sorts	ubiquitinated membrane cargo	`PMID:11511343` Katzmann, Babst and Emr 2001 showed ESCRT-I is needed for ubiquitin-dependent MVB cargo sorting.
ESCRT II complex	recruits	ESCRT III complex	`DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2004.09.003` Teo et al. 2004 described ESCRT-II as part of the sequentially recruited endosomal ESCRT machinery and mapped direct ESCRT-II binding to the Vps20 subunit of ESCRT-III.
ESCRT III complex	remodels	late endosome limiting membrane	`PMID:12194857` Babst et al. 2002 characterized yeast ESCRT-III as an endosome-associated complex required for MVB sorting. `DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2011.05.015` Henne, Buchkovich and Emr 2011 reviewed ESCRT-III as the membrane-remodeling complex in the endosomal ESCRT pathway.
late endosome limiting membrane	buds inward to form	multivesicular body intraluminal vesicle	`GO:0005771` GO defines multivesicular bodies as late-endosome specializations with internal vesicles formed from the limiting endosomal membrane.
multivesicular body intraluminal vesicle	is contained in	multivesicular body	`GO:0005771` GO defines the multivesicular body by the presence of internal vesicles.

Discussions

CURATION_TODO (RESOLVED): Keep the late-endosome record broader than the multivesicular body. GO:0005770 captures the broader late endosome class and GO:0005771 is the multivesicular-body child that specifically contains intraluminal vesicles. This parent record therefore uses MVB sorting as a supported late-endosome example without asserting that intraluminal vesicles define every late endosome.
CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve exact source-neutral groundings for late endosome membrane and lumen specializations. The first late-endosome record keeps the limiting membrane as a reviewed label and the lumen as an ungrounded graph localization because the curated exact GO terms cover generic endosome membrane and lumen boundaries, while the existing MVB membrane and lumen terms are children of the late-endosome record's multivesicular-body specialization.

Evidence

GO:0005770 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for late endosome.
GO:0005768 Gene Ontology cellular-component parent term for endosome.
GO:0005771 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the multivesicular body child class.
GO:0010008 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for endosome membrane.
GO:0031904 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for endosome lumen.
GO:0071985 Gene Ontology biological-process term for the multivesicular body sorting pathway.
PMID:11511343 Katzmann, Babst and Emr 2001, Ubiquitin-Dependent Sorting into the Multivesicular Body Pathway Requires the Function of a Conserved Endosomal Protein Sorting Complex, ESCRT-I, Cell.
DOI:10.1083/jcb.200302136 Katzmann, Stefan, Babst and Emr 2003, Vps27 recruits ESCRT machinery to endosomes during MVB sorting, Journal of Cell Biology.
DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2004.09.003 Teo et al. 2004 described ESCRT-II as part of the sequentially recruited endosomal ESCRT machinery and mapped direct ESCRT-II binding to the Vps20 subunit of ESCRT-III.
PMID:12194857 Babst et al. 2002, ESCRT-III, Developmental Cell.
DOI:10.1016/j.devcel.2011.05.015 Henne, Buchkovich and Emr 2011, The ESCRT Pathway, Developmental Cell.

Curation history

2026-09-16T05:07:58Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-16T05:09:13Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added endosome parentage, a broad reviewed-label-only late-endosome limiting-membrane component, Saccharomyces scope and canonical example, MVB-sorting and vacuolar-delivery functions, GO and DOI evidence, a nonmechanistic ESCRT MVB sorting graph, and late-endosome/MVB boundary plus exact-grounding discussions.
2026-09-16T05:09:44Z codex · REFINED_INITIAL_CURATION — Aligned the expanded-record curation-history summary with the final single-component late-endosome record shape.
2026-09-16T05:19:20Z codex · ADDRESSED_PR_REVIEW — Resolved PR #1065 review issue #1066 by renaming the LIPID component as a late-endosome limiting-membrane lipid bilayer and keeping the whole limiting membrane as a graph structure.
2026-09-21T08:16:18Z codex · REPLACED_UNREADABLE_EVIDENCE — Resolved #1222 by replacing unreadable Babst et al. 2002 ESCRT-II evidence with reachable Teo et al. 2004 support for the ESCRT-II to ESCRT-III handoff in the yeast MVB sorting pathway.
2026-09-21T08:41:49Z codex · REPLACED_UNREADABLE_EVIDENCE — Resolved #1224 by routing Katzmann, Babst and Emr 2001 ESCRT-I evidence through reachable PMID:11511343 instead of the unreadable Cell DOI.
2026-09-21T09:03:20Z codex · REPLACED_UNREADABLE_EVIDENCE — Resolved #1225 by routing Babst et al. 2002 ESCRT-III evidence through reachable PMID:12194857 instead of the unreadable Developmental Cell DOI.
2026-09-23T08:14:39Z codex · LINKED_INTRALUMINAL_VESICLE_RECORD — Grounded the multivesicular-body intraluminal vesicle graph node to cellstructuremech:multivesicular_body_intraluminal_vesicle.

Source: data/structures/membrane_organelle/late_endosome.yaml