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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Generation of Enterobacter sp. YSU Auxotrophs Using Transposon Mutagenesis
Published on: October 31, 2014
Connecting single-cell properties to collective behavior in multiple wild isolates of the Enterobacter cloacae
Sean Lim1, Xiaokan Guo1, James Q Boedicker1,2
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Abstract:
Some strains of motile bacteria self-organize to form spatial patterns of high and low cell density over length scales that can be observed by eye. One such collective behavior is the formation in semisolid agar media of a high cell density swarm band. We isolated 7 wild strains of the Enterobacter cloacae complex capable of forming this band and found its propagation speed can vary 2.5 fold across strains. To connect such variability in collective motility to strain properties, each strain's single-cell motility and exponential growth rates were measured. The band speed did not significantly correlate with any individual strain property; however, a multilinear analysis revealed that the band speed was set by a combination of the run speed and tumbling frequency. Comparison of variability in closely-related wild isolates has the potential to reveal how changes in single-cell properties influence the collective behavior of populations.
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