DegP acts as a chaperone at low temperatures but switches to a peptidase (heat shock protein) at higher temperatures. It degrades transiently denatured and unfolded proteins which accumulate in the periplasm following heat shock or other stress conditions.

• Recombinant protein corresponding to aa 27 - 474 from E. coli degP, fused to His-Tag at N-terminal, expressed in Yeast

DegP is efficient with Val-Xaa and Ile-Xaa peptide bonds, suggesting a preference for beta-branched side chain amino acids. Only unfolded proteins devoid of disulfide bonds appear capable of being cleaved, thereby preventing non-specific proteolysis of folded proteins. Its proteolytic activity is essential for the survival of cells at elevated temperatures. It can degrade IciA, ada, casein, globin and PapA. DegP shares specificity with DegQ. DegP is also involved in the biogenesis of partially folded outer-membrane proteins (OMP).