Protein S, a development-specific protein of Myxococcus xanthus, was purified from the cells of a late stage of development and crystallized. Its circular dichroism spectra indicated that protein S had a high content of beta-structure in both the presence and absence of calcium ion, which is required for self-assembly of protein S on the myxospore surface. Its amino and carboxyl terminal sequences were determined to be alanine-aspartic acid-isoleucine-glycine-valine-alanine-methionine-asparagine-asparagine-aspartic acid-threonine-serine-serine and isoleucine-arginine (isoleucine, serine), respectively. When protein S (molecular weight, 23,000) was digested with trypsin, a trypsin-resistant core of 10,000 molecular weight was obtained. The core peptide was purified, and its amino acid composition was compared with that of protein S. The core peptide was capable of self-assembly on the spore surface in the presence of calcium ion and competed with protein S for binding on the spore surface. The ratio of affinity to the spore surface for protein S to that for the core peptide was 1.55.