UniProt: P51150 (RAB7A_MOUSE), 207 aa. Official MGI symbol Rab7a (MGI:105068),
historical/synonym symbol Rab7. Directory and files use the Rab7 prefix (as
fetched). NCBI taxon 10090.
Mouse Rab7 (Rab7a) is the direct ortholog of human RAB7A and is functionally identical:
a Rab-family small GTPase (EC 3.6.5.2) that acts as the master regulator of the late
endocytic pathway. It cycles between an inactive GDP-bound (cytosolic) state and an
active GTP-bound (membrane-associated) state. When GTP-loaded by the Mon1–Ccz1 GEF on
maturing endosomes (Rab5→Rab7 conversion), it recruits effectors (RILP, HOPS,
retromer, FYCO1, PLEKHM1, ORP1L) to drive late endosome–lysosome fusion,
autophagosome–lysosome fusion, phagosome maturation, retrograde endosome→Golgi
transport, and lysosome positioning. It is inactivated by TBC-domain GAPs.
The mouse-specific experimental literature emphasizes physiological roles:
- Lipophagy / β-adrenergic lipolysis in adipocytes PMID:23708524.
- Synaptic AMPA-receptor trafficking and LTD in neurons PMID:24217640.
- Osteoclast bone resorption / ruffled border via PLEKHM1/DEF8 and RUFY4
[PMID:27777970, PMID:38744829, PMID:22467241].
- Secretory-lysosome trafficking via V-ATPase a3-mediated Rab7 recruitment
PMID:29712939.
- Numerous late-endosome/lysosome co-localization studies (TrkB/NHE6, TrkA/Nedd4-2,
BACE1, TMEM127, WASH/strumpellin, C9ORF72, etc.).
The SynGO annotations from PMID:24217640 were revisited during the human/mouse
RAB7A/Rab7a comparison for the Deliverome project. The accessible paper text
supports AMPA-receptor routing from early endosomes toward late
endosomal/lysosomal compartments during LTD [PMID:24217640 Stargazin regulates
AMPA receptor trafficking through adaptor protein complexes during long-term
depression, "transport from the cell surface to early endosomes and from early
endosomes to late endosomes/lysosomes"]. However, the experimentally centered
actors in the accessible text are stargazin, AP-2, and AP-3A, not Rab7. I
therefore changed the four cached SynGO review rows from UNDECIDED to
KEEP_AS_NON_CORE, retaining them as indirect neuronal-context annotations
rather than core Rab7 biology.
PMID:41814093 Jozić et al. (2026) Nature Biotechnology,
"In vivo endosomal escape assay identifies mechanisms for efficient hepatic LNP
delivery." DOI: 10.1038/s41587-026-03022-6.
- Used LysoTag mice for immunoisolation of liver lysosomes and lysosomal
proteomics to quantify endosomal escape of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) in vivo.
- Key Rab7 finding: "Loss of Rab7, a mediator of late endosomal maturation,
increased LNP escape." In vivo evidence (mouse liver) that Rab7 is a mediator of
late endosomal maturation and that its loss diverts cargo away from the
degradative lysosomal route, increasing cytosolic escape.
- This supports the core Rab7 functions of late-endosome maturation
(early→late endosome transport, endosome→lysosome transport) in an intact mouse.
- Added as a reference and cited as supporting evidence on the relevant
maturation/transport annotations.
Automated deep research could not be run in this environment: the Falcon
provider requires the agentapi binary (not in PATH), and the
OpenAI/Perplexity/Anthropic providers require API keys that are unset. No
-deep-research-{provider}.md file was fabricated (per project policy). A manual,
fully-cited synthesis was written to Rab7-deep-research-manual.md instead.
119 GOA annotations seeded. The biology mirrors human RAB7A
(genes/human/RAB7A/RAB7A-ai-review.yaml). Decisions:
- ACCEPT core MF (GTPase activity, G protein activity, GTP/GDP binding) and core
CC/BP (late endosome, lysosome, endosome→lysosome transport, retromer, retrograde
transport, autophagy/lipophagy, phagosome maturation).
- REMOVE all GO:0005515 protein binding (uninformative per curation guidelines);
the underlying effector interactions are captured by specific terms.
- KEEP_AS_NON_CORE for tissue/context-specialized roles (synaptic, bone resorption,
melanosome, mitophagy, exosome, viral, sterol sensing, EGF catabolism).
- MARK_AS_OVER_ANNOTATED for Golgi apparatus (GO:0005794, IDA from a bulk Golgi
membrane proteomics study PMID:11042173) — Rab7 is a late-endosome/lysosome
protein and this is most consistent with co-fractionation/contamination rather
than a genuine steady-state Golgi pool.