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The<jats:italic>Brucella melitensis<\/jats:italic>NI genome has a gene cluster that encodes ABC transport. In this study, we constructed<jats:italic>yejA1<\/jats:italic>,<jats:italic>yejA2<\/jats:italic>,<jats:italic>yejB<\/jats:italic>,<jats:italic>yejE, yejF<\/jats:italic>and whole<jats:italic>yej<\/jats:italic>operon deletion mutants, none of which exhibited discernible growth defect in TSB or minimal medium. Unlike their parental strain, the mutants showed a significantly increased sensitivity to acidic stress. The NI\u0394<jats:italic>yejE<\/jats:italic>and NI\u0394<jats:italic>yejABEF<\/jats:italic>mutants were also more sensitive than<jats:italic>B. melitensis<\/jats:italic>NI to polymyxin B and the expression of<jats:italic>yej<\/jats:italic>operon genes was induced by polymyxin B. Moreover, cell and mouse infection assays indicated that NI\u0394<jats:italic>yejE<\/jats:italic>and NI\u0394<jats:italic>yejABEF<\/jats:italic>have restricted invasion and replication abilities inside macrophages and are rapidly cleared from the spleens of infected mice. These findings indicate that the ABC transporter YejABEF is required for the virulence of<jats:italic>Brucella<\/jats:italic>, suggesting that resistance to host antimicrobials is a key mechanism for<jats:italic>Brucella<\/jats:italic>to persistently survive<jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic>. This study provided insights that led us to further investigate the potential correlation of AMP resistance with the mechanisms of immune escape and persistent infection by pathogens.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/srep31876","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,8,23]],"date-time":"2016-08-23T09:33:17Z","timestamp":1471944797000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":47,"title":["The ABC transporter YejABEF is required for resistance to antimicrobial peptides and the virulence of Brucella melitensis"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Zhen","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pengfei","family":"Bie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Buyun","family":"Cui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qingmin","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,8,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"BFsrep31876_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"645","DOI":"10.3390\/antibiotics3040645","volume":"3","author":"DR Heimlich","year":"2014","unstructured":"Heimlich, D. 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