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hellcat writes:

From the original article appearing in the journal frontiers in Microbiology, Phenotypic Changes Exhibited by E. coli Cultured in Space (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01598):

By default, bacteria will accompany humans in our exploration of space. The average healthy individual carries trillions of microorganisms in and on their body, outnumbering human cells (Sender et al., 2016). This human microbiome includes opportunistic pathogens, microbes that do not normally cause disease in a healthy person but can provoke an infection when the person's immune system is suppressed, a concern known to occur during spaceflight (Borchers et al., 2002; Mermel, 2013). It is therefore important to understand bacterial behavior in space in preparation for future long-term human space exploration missions. Numerous prior studies performed in space have shown increased bacterial virulence and decreased susceptibility to antibiotics for select in vitro cultures with respect to Earth controls ...

Turns out that E. coli grew better in space, even while bathed in an antibiotic.

The Gizmodo take is a bit alarmist, but the research suggests that poor diffusion of nutrients may be the biggest factor in why the bugs behave differently.

If you want to despoil another world, we have to worry about having more mouths to feed. Not just one mouth, maybe 10 trillion. They are coming along for the ride. Will our lunar and martian colonies fail due to indigestion?

Original Submission