The motility of a population of swimming bacteria can be characterized
by a random motility coefficient, mu, the operational equivalent of a
diffusion coefficient at the macroscopic level and in the absence of
interacting chemical gradients. At the microscopic level, random motil
ity is related to the single-cell parameters: speed, tumbling probabil
ity, and index of directional persistence (related to the angle a cell
's path assumes following a change in direction). Various mathematical
models have been proposed for relating the macroscopic random motilit
y coefficient to these microscopic single-cell parameters. In separate
experiments, we have measured motility at both the cell-population an
d single-cell levels for Escherichia coli. The agreement of these resu
lts shows that the macroscopic transport behavior of a population of m
otile bacteria can be predicted from straightforward microscopic obser
vations on single cells.