Myxococcus xanthus encodes an ATP-dependent protease which is required for developmental gene transcription and intercellular signaling.

The bsgA gene of Myxococcus xanthus plays an essential role in the regulation of early gene expression during fruiting body formation and sporulation. bsgA mutants behave as though unable to initiate a required cell-cell interaction and consequently fail to transcribe normal levels of many developmentally induced genes. We determined the nucleotide sequence of bsgA, which predicts a single gene encoding a 90.4-kDa protein. The deduced BsgA protein shares 45 and 48% amino acid identity with the lon genes of Escherichia coli and Bacillus brevis, respectively. The cloned bsgA gene was expressed in E. coli, and the BsgA protein was partially purified and found, like its E. coli homolog, to be an ATP-dependent protease. Thus, the basis for the phenotype of bsgA mutants is likely to be a defect in intracellular proteolysis.