Adam and Eva Kondorosi
Previous and present members of the IS-MPMI board are the 2012 recipients of the IS-MPMI Award. The award honors their outstanding research on Rhizobium-legume symbiosis and a recent breakthrough discovery on plant-governed differentiation of bacteria. Adam Kondorosi (1946-2011) was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea and EMBO and the founder and director of the Institut des Sciences Végétales CNRS in Gif sur Yvette, France. He served on the MPMI Editorial Board and was President Elect of the IS-MPMI board. Eva Kondorosi is a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea and EMBO. She is scientific director at the Institut des Sciences du Végétal CNRS in Gif sur Yvette, France. She has been the founder and director since 2007 the BAYGEN Institute in Szeged, Hungary which now belongs to the Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Adam was a real geneticist while Eva is more a developmental biologist who contributed significantly to cell cycle research and to understanding the differentiation of plant cells and bacteria. The recent discovery of symbiotic antimicrobial plant peptides which are related to innate immunity effectors, and are able to manipulate the endosymbiotic bacteria for the plant’s benefit, has changed drastically our view of symbiosis. The action of such peptides supports the assumption that a common mechanism exists between different hosts (plant/insect) and bacteria in symbiosis. It also suggests that novel modes of antimicrobial actions could lead to development of potent new antibiotics.
