Biological roles of the Lon ATP-dependent protease.

The Lon ATP-dependent protease plays a major role in protein quality control. An increasing number of regulatory proteins, however, are being identified as Lon substrates, thus indicating that in addition to its housekeeping function, Lon plays an important role in regulating many biological processes in bacteria. This review presents and discusses the involvement of Lon in different aspects of bacterial physiology, including cell differentiation, sporulation, pathogenicity and survival under starvation conditions.