Stigmatella aurantiaca is a gram-negative bacterium which forms, under conditions of starvation in a multicellular process, characteristic three-dimensional structures: the fruiting bodies. For studying this complex process, mutants impaired in fruiting body formation have been induced by transposon insertion with a Tn5-derived transposon. The gene affected (fbfB) in one of the mutants (AP182) was studied further. Inactivation of fbfB results in mutants which form only clumps during starvation instead of wild-type fruiting bodies. This mutant phenotype can be partially rescued, if cells of mutants impaired in fbfB function are mixed with those of some independent mutants defective in fruiting before starvation. The fbfB gene is expressed about 14 h after induction of fruiting body formation as determined by measuring beta-galactosidase activity in a merodiploid strain harboring the wild-type gene and an fbfB-delta trp-lacZ fusion gene or by Northern (RNA) analysis with the Rhodobacter capsulatus pufBA fragment fused to fbfB as an indicator. The predicted polypeptide FbfB has a molecular mass of 57.8 kDa and shows a significant homology to the galactose oxidase (GaoA) of the fungus Dactylium dendroides. Galactose oxidase catalyzes the oxidation of galactose and primary alcohols to the corresponding aldehydes.