microneme membrane

GO:0033163 · Membrane organelle · Membrane · Proposed

The lipid bilayer surrounding a microneme. [GO:0033163]

Part of: microneme (GO:0020009)

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
microneme lipid bilayer	Lipid	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			ESSENTIAL	Generic lipid-bilayer constituent that surrounds a microneme and separates its secretory lumen from the parasite cytosol. `GO:0033163` GO:0033163 defines the microneme membrane as the lipid bilayer surrounding a microneme. `DOI:10.1111/cmi.13018` Dubois and Soldati-Favre 2019 review Toxoplasma microneme biogenesis and exocytosis.

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:5794 Apicomplexa — COMMON: Microneme membranes are the bounding lipid bilayers of apicomplexan micronemes, apical secretory organelles used for regulated secretion during attachment and invasion. [DOI:10.1007/978-0-387-78267-6_2]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:5811 Toxoplasma gondii — Apicomplexan model used to study microneme biogenesis, protein sorting, and regulated microneme exocytosis. [DOI:10.1111/cmi.13018]

Functions

microneme lumen boundary — The microneme membrane forms the lipid-bilayer boundary around the microneme secretory lumen.
- GO:0033163 GO:0033163 defines the microneme membrane as the lipid bilayer surrounding a microneme.
- GO:0034494 GO:0034494 defines the microneme lumen as the volume enclosed by the microneme membrane.

Mechanism graphs

Microneme membrane encloses the secretory lumen (FUNCTION)

The microneme membrane is the lipid bilayer that bounds the microneme and encloses the lumen that stores microneme adhesins before regulated exocytosis.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
microneme membrane	is part of	microneme	`GO:0033163` GO:0033163 defines the microneme membrane as surrounding a microneme. `DOI:10.1111/cmi.13018` Dubois and Soldati-Favre 2019 review Toxoplasma microneme biogenesis and exocytosis.
microneme lumen	is enclosed by	microneme membrane	`GO:0034494` GO:0034494 defines the microneme lumen as the volume enclosed by the microneme membrane.
microneme	supports	microneme exocytosis	`PMID:9208224` Carruthers and Sibley 1997 showed microneme secretion accompanies the first phase of Toxoplasma invasion.

Discussions

CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve an exact source-neutral grounding for the generic lipid constituent of the microneme membrane. The record is exactly grounded to GO:0033163, but no microneme-specific lipid or lipid-bilayer CURIE was curated for the membrane constituent.

Evidence

GO:0033163 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the microneme membrane.
GO:0031090 Gene Ontology cellular-component parent term for organelle membrane.
GO:0020009 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the microneme.
GO:0034494 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the microneme lumen.
DOI:10.1111/cmi.13018 Dubois and Soldati-Favre 2019, Biogenesis and secretion of micronemes in Toxoplasma gondii, Cellular Microbiology.
DOI:10.1007/978-0-387-78267-6_2 Carruthers and Tomley 2008, Microneme proteins in apicomplexans, Subcellular Biochemistry.

Curation history

2026-09-13T12:54:28Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-13T12:54:59Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added organelle-membrane parentage, microneme parthood, a label-only microneme lipid bilayer component, Apicomplexa and Toxoplasma gondii scope, a lumen-boundary function, GO/DOI evidence, a nonmechanistic microneme-membrane topology graph, and a lipid-grounding TODO.
2026-09-20T21:58:46Z codex · ADDRESSED_REVIEW — Retyped the microneme lumen graph node as CELLULAR_LOCALIZATION.

Source: data/structures/membrane_organelle/microneme_membrane.yaml