Antarctica is the highest, driest, and coldest continent on Earth. Its characteristics make it inhospitable to most multicellular life forms, however, microbes are present in every niche, from underwater lakes to the roots of the two native vascular plants in Antarctica, Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis. Our work in the region follows two interrelated lines: where the plant-associated microbiome comes from and what it does, and how microbes and pollutants arrive from lower latitudes.