Abstract. We consider a Sturm-Liouville operator with boundary conditions rationally dependent on the eigenparameter. We study the basis property in L p of the system of eigenfunctions corresponding to this operator. We determine the explicit form of the biorthogonal system. Using this we establish a theorem on the minimality of the part of the system of eigenfunctions. For the basisness in L 2 we prove that the system of eigenfunctions is quadratically close to trigonometric systems. For the basisness in L p we use F. Riesz's theorem.Consider the spectral problemwhere λ is the spectral parameter, q is a real-valued and continuous function on the interval [0, 1],where all the coefficients are real and a ≥ 0, In a recent paper [1] existence and asymptotics of eigenvalues and oscillation of eigenfunctions of this problem were studied. It was proved that the eigenvalues of (0.1)-(0.3) are real, simple and form a sequence λ 0 < λ 1 < · · · accumulating only at ∞ and with λ 0 < c 1 . Moreover, it was proved that if 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 34L10, 34B24, 34L20.