bBrucella is an intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes the worldwide zoonotic disease brucellosis. Brucella virulence relies on its ability to transition to an intracellular lifestyle within host cells. Thus, this pathogen must sense its intracellular localization and then reprogram gene expression for survival within the host cell. A comparative proteomic investigation was performed to identify differentially expressed proteins potentially relevant for Brucella intracellular adaptation. Two proteins identified as cyclophilins (CypA and CypB) were overexpressed in the intracellular environment of the host cell in comparison to laboratorygrown Brucella. To define the potential role of cyclophilins in Brucella virulence, a double-deletion mutant was constructed and its resulting phenotype was characterized. The Brucella abortus ⌬cypAB mutant displayed increased sensitivity to environmental stressors, such as oxidative stress, pH, and detergents. In addition, the B. abortus ⌬cypAB mutant strain had a reduced growth rate at lower temperature, a phenotype associated with defective expression of cyclophilins in other microorganisms. The B. abortus ⌬cypAB mutant also displays reduced virulence in BALB/c mice and defective intracellular survival in HeLa cells. These findings suggest that cyclophilins are important for Brucella virulence and survival in the host cells. C yclophilins (Cyps) are folding helper enzymes that belong to the enzyme class of peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPIases; EC 5.2.1.8). In addition to cyclophilins, PPIases also includes FK506-binding proteins (FKBPs) and parvulins. These three families of proteins that have no sequence or structural homology can be distinguished by being inhibited by the immunosuppressive compounds cyclosporine, FK506, and rapamycin, respectively (1, 2). PPIases catalyze the cis/trans isomerization of peptidyl prolyl bonds. This reaction requires free energy and as a consequence is a slow process at lower temperatures, being the rate-limiting step in protein folding (3). PPIases are thought to be important for the correct folding of nascent proteins as well as their refolding (4-6). It is postulated that conformational isomerization by PPIases controls the activity of target proteins, regulating the interaction with other partner proteins to form complexes (3, 7).Cyclophilins are evolutionary conserved and have been found in all organisms analyzed to date, with the exception of Mycoplasma genitalium and some members of the Archaea (8). They are ubiquitously distributed proteins and like the other PPIases are critical for cell adaptation under stress conditions (9). Cyclophilins have been reported to be involved in several processes, such as adaptation to environmental stress, cell cycle control, signal transduction, and transcriptional regulation (8, 10-12). In addition, they have been implicated in the virulence of fungal and parasitic pathogens (13-17). Recent reports have shown the involvement of PPIases in stress tolerance and pathogenesis of bacteria, su...