A high concentration of salt or sugar in the environment will dehydrate microorganisms and stop them from growing. To counter this, bacteria can increase their internal solute concentration. Scientists from the University of Groningen elucidated the structure of a transport protein OpuA, that imports glycine betaine to counter osmotic stress. The protein belongs to the well-known family of ABC transporters, but it has a unique structure and working mechanism. The results were published in Science Advances on 18 November.