late endosome membrane

GO:0031902 · Membrane organelle · Membrane · Proposed

The lipid bilayer surrounding a late endosome. [GO:0031902]

Synonyms: late endosomal membrane

Part of: late endosome (GO:0005770)

Xrefs: uniprot.location:SL-0151 — Late endosome membrane

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
late endosome membrane lipid bilayer	Lipid	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			ESSENTIAL	Lipid-bilayer constituent that forms the late endosome boundary and separates its lumen from the cytosol. `GO:0031902` GO:0031902 defines the late endosome membrane as the lipid bilayer surrounding a late endosome. `GO:0031906` GO:0031906 defines the late endosome lumen by enclosure within the membrane of a late endosome.

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — COMMON: Budding yeast late endosome/MVB limiting membranes provide the ESCRT-dependent sorting surface where Vps27 recruits ESCRT-I for ubiquitinated membrane cargo sorting. [DOI:10.1083/jcb.200302136]

NCBITaxon:4932 Saccharomyces cerevisiae — Genetic model for Vps27-dependent ESCRT-I recruitment to endosomal membranes in the multivesicular-body sorting pathway. [DOI:10.1083/jcb.200302136]

late endosome membrane compartmentalization — The late endosome membrane compartmentalizes the late endosome lumen as the lipid-bilayer boundary of late endocytic sorting compartments.
- GO:0031902 GO:0031902 defines the late endosome membrane as the lipid bilayer surrounding a late endosome.
- GO:0031906 GO:0031906 defines the late endosome lumen as the volume enclosed by the membrane of a late endosome.
multivesicular body sorting pathway GO:0071985 — Late endosomal membranes provide a sorting surface for ESCRT-dependent delivery of ubiquitinated membrane cargo into multivesicular-body intraluminal vesicles.
- GO:0071985 GO:0071985 denotes the multivesicular body sorting pathway that targets ubiquitylated transmembrane proteins into luminal vesicles.
- GO:0005771 GO:0005771 defines multivesicular bodies as late-endosome-class endosomes whose internal vesicles form by invagination of the limiting endosomal membrane.
- DOI:10.1083/jcb.200302136 Katzmann et al. 2003 localized Vps27 and ESCRT-I recruitment to yeast endosomal membranes during MVB sorting.
- 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.

The late endosome membrane is a specialized endosome membrane that forms part of the late endosome and bounds its lumen.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
late endosome membrane	is a	endosome membrane	`GO:0031902` GO:0031902 identifies late endosome membrane as an endosome-membrane child. `GO:0010008` GO:0010008 defines the broader endosome membrane class.
late endosome membrane	is part of	late endosome	`GO:0031902` GO:0031902 defines the late endosome membrane as surrounding 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.

CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve exact lipid species or lipid classes for the late endosome membrane before expanding molecular composition. The GO term exactly identifies the complete late endosome membrane as a lipid bilayer, but this first membrane record does not curate the source-neutral lipid classes or organism-specific species that make up the bilayer.

GO:0031902 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the late endosome membrane.
GO:0010008 Gene Ontology cellular-component parent term for endosome membrane.
GO:0005770 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the late endosome.
GO:0005771 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the multivesicular body child class.
GO:0031906 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the late endosome lumen bounded by the membrane.
uniprot.location:SL-0151 — Late endosome membrane UniProt Subcellular Location entry SL-0151 maps Late endosome membrane to GO:0031902 and places it under Endosome membrane.
GO:0071985 Gene Ontology biological-process term for the multivesicular body sorting pathway.
DOI:10.1083/jcb.200302136 Katzmann, Stefan, Babst and Emr 2003, Vps27 recruits ESCRT machinery to endosomes during MVB sorting, Journal of Cell Biology.
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.

2026-09-22T17:56:02Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-22T17:56:42Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added endosome-membrane parentage, late-endosome parthood, a late endosomal membrane synonym, UniProt SL-0151 xref, a reviewed lipid-bilayer component, Saccharomyces cerevisiae scope, compartmentalization and MVB-sorting functions, GO/UniProt/DOI evidence, a nonmechanistic membrane-topology graph, and a lipid-species curation TODO.
2026-09-22T18:07:21Z codex · ADDRESSED_PR_REVIEW — Addressed PR #1309 review issues #1310 and #1311 by adding GO:0005771 and PMID:11511343 evidence for the MVB-sorting function and narrowing the Saccharomyces cerevisiae notes to late endosome/MVB limiting membranes.