Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
endosome

endosome

1 9.1
A small pocket inside a cell that holds and sends incoming things to the right place
  • noun
  • /ˈɛndəˌsoʊm/
  • Specialized
: endosoma
  • An endosome is crucial for transporting materials within the cell after they are taken in from the outside.

Examples

  • Endosomes play a key role in sorting cellular materials after endocytosis.

  • Numerous attempts have been made to add functional moieties to facilitate endosome escape.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Increasing endosome buffering capacity is one of the most important modifications of nVVs.

    Academic text (2018)

  • The nVGC interacts with the cell membrane, becomes partially encapsulated, dissociates to form intracellular vesicles, and finally integrates into endosomes 34.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Researchers are studying how endosomes contribute to the delivery of proteins to their target sites within the cell.

Surface Forms

endosome singular
endosomes plural

Morphology

endosome = endo- + -some (semi-transparent) = endo + some

The formation uses scientific combining forms ('endo-' + '-some') whose meanings ('within' + 'body') are clear to those with biomedical knowledge but may be opaque to general B1 learners.

Etymology

Endosome comes from Greek parts endo- 'within' and -soma 'body', so it literally means a 'body inside'. This is a helpful image because an endosome is a small membrane 'body' inside a cell that sorts and moves materials taken in from outside.