In Bacillus megaterium sporulating at 35 degrees C, up to 90% of 10-min pulse-labeled proteins were degraded. Degradation proceeded in two waves. Short-lived proteins, i.e., intrinsically labile proteins and proteins made short-lived because of starvation, were mostly degraded during the reversible sporulation phase. Their amount corresponded to 20% or slightly more during 2 h, The second wave of protein degradation, which followed during the irreversible sporulation phase at 35 degrees C, increased the amount of total degradable pulse-labeled proteins to about 90%. This wave was absent in the isogenic asporogenic mutant 27-36 or in the wild strain, whose sporulation was inhibited by increased temperature. The proportion of degradable proteins was thus reduced to less than 40% in the asporogenic mutant incubated at 35 degrees C and to 46% in the wild strain whose sporulation was suppressed by the temperature of 47 degrees C, Unlike sporulating cells, these cells were thus capable of degrading short-lived and denatured proteins, but were not able to degrade most of other proteins. The in vitro protein degradation was substantially enhanced by increasing the Ca2+ concentration, suggesting a role of Ca2+-dependent proteinase(s) in the process.