Anomalous diffusion of E. coli under microfluidic confinement and chemical gradient

We report a two-layer microfluidic device to study the combined effect of confinement and chemical gradient on the motility of wild-type E. coli. We track individual E. coli in 50 μm and 10 μm wide microchannels, with a channel height of 2 μm, to generate quasi-2D conditions. We find that contrary to expectations, bacterial trajectories are superdiffusive even in the absence of a chemical (glucose) gradient. The superdiffusive behaviour becomes more pronounced upon introducing a chemical gradient or strengthening the lateral confinement. Run length distributions for weak lateral confinement in the absence of chemical gradients follow an exponential distribution. Both confinement and chemoattraction induce deviations from this behaviour, with the run length distributions approaching a power-law form under these conditions. Both confinement and chemoattraction suppress large-angle tumbles as well. Our results suggest that wild-type E. coli modulates both its runs and tumbles in a similar manner under physical confinement and chemical gradient. Our findings have implications for understanding how bacteria modulate their motility behaviour in natural habitats.