late endosome lumen

GO:0031906 · Membrane organelle · Subcellular region · Proposed

The volume enclosed by the membrane of a late endosome. [GO:0031906]

Synonyms: late endosomal lumen

Part of: late endosome (GO:0005770)

Xrefs: uniprot.location:SL-0336 — Late endosome lumen

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — COMMON: Budding yeast multivesicular-body lumens receive intraluminal vesicles and ubiquitinated membrane cargo during ESCRT-dependent sorting. [PMID:11511343]

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — Genetic model for ESCRT-dependent cargo sorting into budding-yeast multivesicular-body lumens as a late-endosome child-compartment example. [PMID:11511343]

multivesicular body sorting pathway GO:0071985 — In multivesicular bodies, a late-endosome child class, the lumen receives ubiquitinated membrane cargo on intraluminal vesicles generated from the limiting membrane during ESCRT-dependent MVB sorting.
- GO:0031906 GO:0031906 defines the late endosome lumen as the volume enclosed by the membrane of a late endosome.
- GO:0005771 GO:0005771 defines multivesicular bodies as late-endosome-class endosomes with internal vesicles formed by invagination of the limiting endosomal membrane.
- GO:0071985 GO:0071985 denotes the multivesicular body sorting pathway that targets ubiquitylated transmembrane proteins into luminal vesicles.
- PMID:11511343 Katzmann, Babst and Emr 2001 identified ESCRT-I as a conserved yeast endosomal protein-sorting complex needed for ubiquitin-dependent MVB cargo sorting.
- PMID:12194857 Babst et al. 2002 characterized yeast ESCRT-III as an endosome-associated complex required for MVB sorting.

The late endosome lumen is a specialized endosome lumen enclosed within a late endosome.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
late endosome lumen	is a	endosome lumen	`uniprot.location:SL-0336` — Late endosome lumen UniProt SL-0336 places the late endosome lumen under endosome lumen. `GO:0031904` GO:0031904 identifies the broader endosome lumen class.
late endosome lumen	is part of	late endosome	`GO:0031906` GO:0031906 defines the late endosome lumen as the volume enclosed by the membrane of a late endosome.
late endosome membrane	bounds	late endosome lumen	`GO:0031902` GO:0031902 identifies the late endosome membrane. `GO:0031906` GO:0031906 defines the late endosome lumen by enclosure within the membrane of a late endosome.

INTERPRETATION (RESOLVED): Represent the late endosome membrane as the boundary of the late endosome lumen rather than as a lumen component. GO:0031906 denotes the volume enclosed by the membrane of a late endosome, whereas GO:0031902 denotes the surrounding lipid bilayer.

GO:0031906 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the late endosome lumen.
GO:0031904 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the broader endosome lumen class.
GO:0005770 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the containing late endosome.
GO:0031902 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the late endosome membrane that bounds the lumen.
GO:0005771 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the multivesicular body child class.
uniprot.location:SL-0336 — Late endosome lumen UniProt Subcellular Location entry SL-0336 maps Late endosome lumen to GO:0031906 and places it under 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.
PMID:12194857 Babst, Katzmann, Estepa-Sabal, Meerloo and Emr 2002, Escrt-III, Developmental Cell.

2026-09-22T18:29:04Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-22T18:30:07Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added endosome-lumen parentage, late-endosome parthood, a late endosomal lumen synonym, UniProt SL-0336 xref, Saccharomyces cerevisiae MVB-sorting lumen scope, an MVB cargo-sorting function, GO/UniProt/PMID evidence, a nonmechanistic lumen topology graph, and a resolved lumen-boundary interpretation.
2026-09-22T18:30:48Z codex · REFINED_INITIAL_CURATION — Narrowed the cargo-sorting function to multivesicular bodies as the late-endosome child class that receives ubiquitinated membrane cargo on intraluminal vesicles.
2026-09-22T18:34:41Z codex · REFINED_INITIAL_CURATION — Aligned the GO:0071985-grounded cargo-sorting function label with the canonical multivesicular body sorting pathway label.
2026-09-22T18:50:22Z codex · ADDRESSED_PR_REVIEW — Addressed PR #1312 review issues #1313 and #1314 by adding PMID:12194857 ESCRT-III evidence to the MVB-sorting function and narrowing the Saccharomyces cerevisiae notes to MVB lumens as late-endosome child-compartment examples.