A diverse array of bacteria species naturally self-organize into durable macroscale patterns on solid surfaces via swarming motility—a highly coordinated and rapid movement of bacteria powered by flagella. Engineering swarming is an untapped opportunity to increase the scale and robustness of coordinated synthetic microbial systems. Here we engineer Proteus mirabilis, which natively forms centimeter-scale bullseye swarm patterns, to ‘write’ external inputs into visible spatial records. Specifically, we engineer tunable expression of swarming-related genes that modify pattern features, and we develop quantitative approaches to decoding. Next, we develop a dual-input system that modulates two swarming-related genes simultaneously, and we separately show that growing colonies can record dynamic environmental changes. We decode the resulting multicondition patterns with deep classification and segmentation models. Finally, we engineer a strain that records the presence of aqueous copper. This work creates an approach for building macroscale bacterial recorders, expanding the framework for engineering emergent microbial behaviors.

多种细菌物种通过群体运动自然地在固体表面上自组织成持久的宏观模式——由鞭毛驱动的细菌高度协调和快速的运动。工程集群是一个尚未开发的机会，可以提高协调合成微生物系统的规模和稳健性。在这里，我们设计了奇异变形杆菌，它本身形成厘米级的牛眼群模式，将外部输入“写入”可见的空间记录。具体来说，我们设计了修改模式特征的集群相关基因的可调表达，并开发了定量解码方法。接下来，我们开发了一个双输入系统，可以同时调节两个与集群相关的基因，并且我们分别表明生长中的菌落可以记录动态环境变化。我们使用深度分类和分割模型来解码生成的多条件模式。最后，我们设计了一种记录铜水溶液存在的菌株。这项工作创建了一种构建宏观细菌记录器的方法，扩展了工程新兴微生物行为的框架。