Alberto Carbonell Olivares

Alberto Carbonell (AC) is a CSIC Científico Titular researcher and leads the “Plant Small RNA Biotechnology” group at the Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMCP) in Valencia, Spain. His research has focused on RNA biology in plants, combining basic and applied approaches to understand how RNAs regulate gene expression and control or induce diseases. A major current focus is the development of next-generation artificial small RNA (art-sRNA)–based tools for selective gene silencing and antiviral resistance in model plants and crops. His long-term goal is developing non-GMO RNA technologies to improve crop resilience and sustainability, addressing pressing challenges in agriculture. Combining innovative science with impactful collaborations, AC aims to continue pioneering advancements in plant biotechnology for global food security.

AC graduated as an Agricultural Engineer with a Biotechnology major from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) in 2001. During his PhD at IBMCP under the supervision of Ricardo Flores and Selma Gago, he developed RNA-based tools to engineer viroid resistance in plants. His first postdoctoral position at the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid (Juan Antonio García lab) focused on identifying pathogenicity determinants in viral proteins. Later, at Oregon State University (USA) and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (USA) in Jim’s Carrington lab, he studied small RNA interactions with ARGONAUTE proteins and developed platforms for high-throughput design of art-sRNAs. These tools, widely cited in over 40 publications, have been broadly used by the scientific community in functional genomics studies in plants. This strong international background has shaped his expertise in RNA-guided gene silencing and antiviral defense mechanisms. Since returning to IBMCP in 2015 as a Marie Curie Fellow, AC has advanced the understanding of ARGONAUTE complexes in gene regulation and antiviral defense. As a Ramón y Cajal fellow, he has secured competitive national funding (grants RTI2018-095118-A-I00, PID2021-122186OB-100, PDC2022-133241-I00, CNS2022-135107) to optimize art-sRNA technologies, improving traits such as flowering time and antiviral defenses in crops like tomato.

AC is co-inventor of 4 patents related to the generation and use of art-sRNAs in plants, demonstrating his commitment to the transfer and application of newly developed innovative technologies in plant biotechnology. With an H-Index of 25), he has authored >40 high-impact scientific publications, book chapters and an edited volume. He has contributed >70 communications at scientific meetings (30 as speaker) and participated in >20 research projects (10 as PI). AC actively contributes to the scientific community as an editorial board member of 5 journals (with 37 verified editor records and 60 verified peer reviews for 29 journals). He has reviewed >10 grant proposals for international agencies and 18 grant proposals for national agencies. Furthermore, has participated in the committees of 5 PhD theses and 15 Master theses and has coordinated 2 scientific meetings. AC is currently supervising 2 postdocs, 2 PhD students, 1 Master thesis student, 1 final degree student and 1 lab technician, and has tutored 1 PhD student, 8 Master thesis students, 1 final degree student and 8 undergraduate students, proving his commitment to fostering the next generation of plant scientists. Additionally, his engagement in teaching 2 different Master programs and participating in various outreach activities reflects its dedication to knowledge dissemination, public education, and societal impact. AC also contributes to open science by publishing articles in open access, sharing >20 DNA constructs in the Addgene plasmid repository, and depositing >40 high-throughput sequencing datasets in the SRA or GEO sequence databases. Finally, AC maintains active collaborations with international and national collaborators that support innovative research and the development of cutting-edge RNA-based biotechnologies for plants.

* Corresponding author

** These authors contributed equally to this work.

2025

Ariel H. Tomassi**, María Juárez-Molina**, Adriana E. Cisneros, Ana Alarcia, Francesca Orlando, Sara Toledano-Franco, Silvia Presa, Antonio Granell, Alberto Carbonell* (2025). Precision RNAi in Tomato Using Synthetic Trans-Acting Small Interfering RNAs Derived From Minimal Precursors. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2025.04.10.648111

María Juárez-Molina, Ana Alarcia, Anamarija Primc, Iván Ortega-Miralles, Adriana E. Cisneros, Alberto Carbonell* (2025). Gene Silencing in Plants by Artificial Small RNAs Derived from Minimal Precursors and Expressed via Tobacco Rattle Virus. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2025.03.27.645721

Ariel H. Tomassi**, Ana Perea-García**, Guillermo Rodrigo, Javier Sánchez-Vicente, Adriana E. Cisneros, Marta Olmos, Amparo Andrés-Bordería, Lucio López-Dolz, José-Antonio Daròs, Lola Peñarrubia* and Alberto Carbonell* (2025). Arabidopsis thaliana Iron Superoxide Dismutase FeSOD1 Protects ARGONAUTE 1 in a Copper-Dependent Manner. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2025.02.26.640378

Adriana E. Cisneros, Alberto Carbonell* (2025). A visual reporter system for analyzing small RNA-triggered local and systemic silencing of an endogenous plant gene. In: Plant MicroRNAs: Methods and Protocols, second edition (Ed. Stefan de Folter). Methods in Molecular Biology (in press) 2408: 227-242. Springer Protocols series, Humana Press, NY, USA. ISBN: 978-1-0716-4397-6.

Adriana E. Cisneros**, Ana Alarcia**, Juan José Llorens-Gámez, Ana Puertes, María Juárez-Molina, Anamarija Primc and Alberto Carbonell* (2025). Syn-tasiR-VIGS: Virus-Based Targeted RNAi in Plants By Synthetic Trans Acting Small Interfering RNAs Derived from Minimal Precursors. Nucleic Acids Research 53 (5): gkaf183.

2023

Adriana E. Cisneros, Tamara Martín-García, Anamarija Primc, Wojtek Kuziuta, Javier Sánchez-Vicente Verónica Aragonés, José-Antonio Daròs, Alberto Carbonell* (2023). Transgene-free virus-based gene silencing in plant by artificial microRNAs derived from minimal precursors. Nucleic Acids Research 51 (19): 10719–10736.

Adriana E. Cisneros, Purificación Lisón, Laura Campos, Joan Manel López-Tubau, Teresa Altabella, Albert Ferrer, José-Antonio Daròs, Alberto Carbonell* (2023). Down-regulation of Tomato STEROL GLYCOSYLTRANSFERASE 1 Perturbs Plant Development and Facilitates Viroid Infection. Journal of Experimental Botany 74 (5): 1564-1578.

Francesco Di Serio, Robert A. Owens, Beatriz Navarro, Pedro Serra, Ángel Emilio Martínez de Alba, Sonia Delgado, Alberto Carbonell, Selma Gago-Zachert (2023). Role of RNA silencing in plant-viroid interaction and in viroid pathogenesis. Virus Research 323. 198964.

2022

María-Carmen Marqués, Javier Sánchez-Vicente, Raúl Ruiz, Roser Montagud-Martínez, Rosa Márquez-Costa, Gustavo Gómez, Alberto Carbonell, José-Antonio Daròs*, Guillermo Rodrigo* (2022). Diagnostics of plant viral infections with CRISPR-Cas12a and CRISPR-Cas13d. ACS Synthetic Biology 11 (7): 2384-2393.

Adriana E. Cisneros, Ainhoa de la Torre-Montaña, Alberto Carbonell* (2022). Systemic silencing of an endogenous plant gene by two classes of mobile 21-nucleotide artificial small RNAs. The Plant Journal 110 (4): 1166-1181.

Lucio López-Dolz, Maria Spada, José-Antonio Daròs and Alberto Carbonell* (2022). Fine-tune control of plant gene expression by synthetic trans-acting small interfering RNAs. In: Plant Gene Silencing: Methods and Protocols (Eds. Kirankumar Mysore and Muthappa Senthil-Kumar). Methods in Molecular Biology 2408: 227-242. Springer Protocols series, Humana Press, NY, USA. ISBN: 978-1-0716-1875-2.

Alberto Carbonell* (2022). RNAi tools for controlling viroid diseases. Virus Research 198729.

Vicente Pallás, Carmen Hernández, Jose Francisco Marcos, José-Antonio Daròs, Beatriz Navarro, José Antonio Navarro, Marcos de la Peña, Selma Gago-Zachert, María Eugenia Gas, Alberto Carbonell, Carmelo López, Ángel Emilio Martínez de Alba, Francesco Di Serio, Pedro Moreno (2022). In memoriam of Ricardo Flores: the career, achievements, and legacy of an inspirational plant virologist. Virus Research 198718.

2021

Vicente Pallás Benet, Alberto Carbonell, Miguel Aranda, Blanca Landa del Castillo, Carlos López Herrera, Enrique Moriones Alonso, Juan A. Navas Cortés, Félix Ortego Alonso, Rafael Zas Arregui (2021). Plant health. Resistance to pests and diseases. In: Sustainable primary production (Eds. Enrique Olmos Aranda, Mónica Venegas Calerón), vol. 6: 85-105. CSIC Scientific Challenges: Towards 2030. Editorial CSIC. ISBN: 978-84-00-10748-2.

Adriana E. Cisneros, Ainhoa De la Torre-Montaña, Tamara Martín-García, Alberto Carbonell* (2021). Artificial small RNAs for functional genomics in plants. In: RNA-based technologies for functional genomics in plants (Eds. Guiliang Tang, Sachin Teotia, Xiaoqing Tang, Deepali Singh). Concepts and Strategies in Plant Sciences 16076: 1-29. Springer Nature. eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-64994-4.

2020

Minglei Yang, Hugh Woolfenden, Yueying Zhang, Xiaofeng Fang, Qi Liu, Maria Louisa Vigh, Jitender Cheema, Xiaofei Yang, Matthew Norris, Sha Yu, Hang Zhang, Alberto Carbonell, Peter Brodersen, Jiawei Wang, Caroline Dean, Yiliang Ding* (2020). RNA structure-dependent activation of endonuclease RISC promotes miRNA cleavage in vivo. Nucleic Acids Research 48 (15): 8767-8781.

Adriana E. Cisneros and Alberto Carbonell* (2020). Art-sRNAi for enhanced antiviral resistance in plants. Encyclopedia (ISSN: ISSN 2309-3366): https://encyclopedia.pub/1870

Lucio López-Dolz, Maria Spada, José-Antonio Daròs, Alberto Carbonell* (2020). Fine-tune control of targeted RNAi efficacy by plant artificial small RNAs. Nucleic Acids Research 48 (11): 6234-6250.

Adriana E. Cisneros and Alberto Carbonell* (2020). Artificial Small RNA-Based Silencing Tools for Antiviral Resistance in Plants. Plants 9 (6): 669.

Pedro Serra, Alberto Carbonell, Beatriz Navarro, Selma Gago-Zachert, Shifang Li, Francesco Di Serio*, Ricardo Flores* (2020). Symptomatic plant viroid infections in phytopathogenic fungi: a request for a critical reassessment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 117 (19): 10126-10128.

2019

Carbonell, A.*, Purificación Lisón and Daròs, J.A. (2019). Multi-targeting of viral RNAs with synthetic trans-acting small interfering RNAs enhances plant antiviral resistance. The Plant Journal 100: 720-737.

Cervera-Seco, L., Marqués, M.C., Sanz-Carbonell, A., Márquez-Molins, J., Carbonell, A.,  Daròs, J.A. and Gómez, G. (2019) Identification and characterization of a stress-responsive TAS3-derived tasiRNA in melon. Plant and Cell Physiology 60 (11): 2382-2393.

Carbonell, A.* and Daròs, J.A. (2019). Design, Synthesis, and Functional Analysis of Highly Specific Artificial Small RNAs With Antiviral Activity in Plants. In: Antiviral Resistance in Plants: Methods and Protocols (Eds. Kappei Kobayashi and Masamichi Nishiguchi). Methods in Molecular Biology 2028: 231-246.

Carbonell, A.* (2019). Secondary small interfering RNA-based silencing tools in plants: an update. Frontiers in Plant Science 10: 687.

Carbonell, A.* (2019). Design and high-throughput generation of artificial small RNA constructs for plants. In: Plant MicroRNAs: Methods and Protocols (Ed. Stephan de Folter). Methods in Molecular Biology 1932: 247-260.

Carbonell, A.*, López, C. and Daròs, J.A.* (2019). Fast-forward identification of highly effective artificial small RNAs against different Tomato spotted wilt virus isolates. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 32 (2): 142-156.

2017

Carbonell, A. (ed) (2017). Plant Argonaute Proteins: Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1640. Springer Protocols series, Humana Press, NY, USA. ISBN: 978-1-4939-7164-0.

Carbonell, A.* (2017). Plant ARGONAUTEs: features, functions and unknowns. In: Plant Argonaute Proteins: Methods and Protocols (Ed. Alberto Carbonell). Methods in Molecular Biology 1640: 1-21.

Carbonell, A.* (2017). Immunoprecipitation and high-throughput sequencing of ARGONAUTE-bound RNAs from plants. In: Plant Argonaute Proteins: Methods and Protocols (Ed. Alberto Carbonell). Methods in Molecular Biology 1640: 93-112.

Kénesi, E., Carbonell, A., Lózsa, R., Vértessy, B.* and Lakatos, L.* (2017) A viral suppressor of RNA silencing inhibits ARGONAUTE 1 function by precluding target RNA binding to pre-assembled RISC. Nucleic Acids Research 45 (13): 7736-7750.

Carbonell, A.* (2017). Artificial small RNA-based strategies for effective and specific gene silencing in plants. In: Plant Gene Silencing: Mechanisms and Applications (Ed. Tamas Dalmay), ch. 6, pp 110-127. CABI Biotechnology Series, CABI Publishing.

Carbonell, A.* and Daròs, J.A. (2017). Artificial microRNAs and synthetic trans-acting small interfering RNAs interfere with viroid infection. Molecular Plant Pathology 18 (5): 746-753.

Cordero, T., Cerdán, L., Carbonell, A., Katsarou, K., Kalantidis, K. and and Daròs*, J.A. (2017). Dicer-like 4 is involved in restricting the systemic movement of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus in Nicotiana benthamiana. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 30 (1): 63-71.

2016

Carbonell, A.* (2016). El análisis de mutantes del hongo fitopatógeno Colletotrichum higginsianum deficientes en componentes clave de la maquinaria de silenciamiento génico revela la presencia inesperada de un nuevo micovirus. Virología 19 (2): 83-84.

Carbonell, A.*, García, J.A., Simón-Mateo, C. and Hernández, C. (2016). Plant virus RNA replication. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Carbonell, A.*, Carrington, J.C.C. and Daròs, J.A. (2016). Fast-forward generation of effective artificial small RNAs for enhanced antiviral defense in plants. RNA and Disease 3: e 1130.

Fahlgren, N.*, Hill, S.T., Carrington, J.C. and Carbonell, A.* (2016). P-SAMS: a web site for plant artificial microRNA and synthetic trans-acting small interfering RNA design. Bioinformatics 32 (1): 157-158.

2015

Carbonell, A.* (2015). Trading defense for vigour. Nature Plants 1 (11), 15174.

Carbonell, A.* and Carrington, J.C. (2015). Antiviral roles of plant ARGONAUTES. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 27: 111-117.

Carbonell A*., Fahlgren, N., Mitchell, S., Cox Jr., K.L., Reilly, K.C., Mockler, T.C. and Carrington, J.C.* (2015). Highly specific gene silencing in a monocot species by artificial microRNAs derived from chimeric MIRNA precursors. The Plant Journal 82 (6): 1061-1075.

Garcia-Ruiz, H.G., Carbonell, A., Hoyer, J.S., Fahlgren, N., Gilbert, K.B., Takeda, A., Giampetruzzi, A., Garcia-Ruiz, M.T., Lottes, M.M., Lowery, N., Martinez-Albaladejo, M.T. and Carrington, J.C.* (2015). Roles and programming of ARGONAUTE proteins during Turnip Mosaic Virus infection in Arabidopsis. PLOS Pathogens 11 (3): e1004755.

Flores, R.*, Minoia, S., Carbonell, A., Gisel, A., Delgado, S., López-Carrasco, A., Navarro, B. and Di Serio, F. (2015). Viroids, the simplest RNA replicons: how they manipulate their hosts for being propagated and how their hosts react for containing the infection. Virus Research 209: 136-145.

Shan, H., Pasin, F., Valli, A., Castillo Di Giacinto, C., Rajulu, C., Carbonell, A., Simón-Mateo, C., García*, J.A. and Rodamilans, B.* (2015). The Potyviridae P1a leader protease contributes to host range specificity. Virology 476, 264-270.

2014

Zhang, X., Niu, D., Carbonell, A., Wang. A., Lee, A., Tun, V., Wang, Z., Carrington, J.C., Chang, C.A. and Jin, H.* (2014). Argonaute PIWI domain and microRNA duplex structure regulate small RNA sorting in Arabidopsis. Nature Communications 5, 5468.

Gilbert, K.B., Fahlgren, N., Kasschau, K.D., Chapman, E. J., Carrington, J.C. and Carbonell, A.* (2014). Preparation of multiplexed small RNA libraries from plants. Bio-protocol 4 (21): e1275.

Minoia, S., Carbonell, A., Di Serio, F., Gisel, A., Carrington, J.C., Navarro, B.* and Flores, R.* (2014). Specific ARGONAUTES bind selectively small RNAs derived from Potato spindle tuber viroid and attenuate viroid accumulation in vivo. Journal of Virology 88 (20), 11933-11945.

Carbonell, A., Takeda, A., Fahlgren, N., Johnson, S.C., Cuperus, J.T. and Carrington, J.C.* (2014). New generation of artificial microRNA and synthetic trans-acting small interfering RNA vectors for efficient gene silencing in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 165 (1), 15-29.

2013

Carbonell, A., Maliogka, V.I., de Jesús Pérez, J., Salvador, B., San León, D., García, J.A.* and Simón-Mateo, C.* (2013). Diverse amino acid changes at specific positions in the N-terminal region of the coat protein allow Plum pox virus to adapt to new hosts. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 26 (10), 1211-1224.

2012

Carbonell, A., Fahlgren, N, García-Ruíz, H., Gilbert, K.B., Montgomery T.A., Nguyen, T., Cuperus, J.T. and Carrington, J.C.* (2012). Functional analysis of three Arabidopsis ARGONAUTES using slicer-defective mutants. The Plant Cell 24 (9), 3613-3629.

Maliogka, V.I., Salvador, B., Carbonell, A., Sáenz, P., San León, D., Oliveros, J.C., Delgadillo, M.O., García, J.A.* and Simón-Mateo, C.* (2012). Virus variants with differences in the P1 protein coexist in a Plum pox viruspopulation and display particular host-dependent pathogenicity features. Molecular Plant Pathology 13 (8), 877-886.

Maliogka, V.I., Calvo, M., Carbonell, A., García, J.A.* and Valli, A.* (2012). Heterologous RNA silencing suppressors from both plant- and animal-infecting viruses support Plum pox virus infection. Journal of General Virology 93 (7), 1601-1611.

Carbonell, A., Flores, R.* and Gago, S.* (2012). Hammerhead ribozymes against virus and viroid RNAs. In: From Nucleic Acids Sequences to Molecular Medicine (Eds. Volker A. Erdmann and Jan Barciszewski), pp 411-427. RNA Technologies Series, Springer-Verlag.

Carbonell, A., Dujovny, G., García, J.A.* and Valli, A.* (2012). The Cucumber vein yellowing virus silencing suppressor P1b can functionally replace HCPro in Plum pox virus infection in a host-specific manner. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 25 (2), 151-164.

2011

Carbonell, A., Flores, R. and Gago, S.* (2011). Trans-cleaving hammerhead ribozymes with tertiary stabilizing motifs: in vitro and in vivo activity against a structured viroid RNA. Nucleic Acids Research 39 (6), 2432-2444

2010

Cuperus, J.T., Carbonell, A., Fahlgren, N., Garcia-Ruiz, H., Burke, R.T., Takeda, A., Sullivan, C.M., Gilbert, S.D., Montgomery, T.A. and Carrington, J.C.* (2010). Unique functionality of 22-nt miRNAs in triggering RDR6-dependent siRNA biogenesis from target transcripts in Arabidopsis. Nature Structural Molecular Biology 17 (8), 997-1003.

2009

Flores, R.*, Gas, M.E., Molina-Serrano, D., Nohales, M.A., Carbonell, A., Gago, S., De la Peña, M. and Daròs, J.A. (2009). Viroid replication: rolling-circles, enzymes and ribozymes. Viruses 1 (2), 317-334.

2008

Carbonell, A., Martínez de Alba, A.E., Flores, R.* and Gago, S. (2008). Double-stranded RNA interferes in a sequence-specific manner with infection of representative members of the two viroid families. Virology 371 (1), 44-53.

Flores, R.*, Carbonell, A., Gago, S., Martínez de Alba, A.E., Delgado, S, Rodio, M.E. and Di Serio, F. (2008). Viroid-host interactions: a molecular dialogue between two uneven partners. In: Biology of Plant Microbe Interactions (Eds. M. Lorito, S.L. Woo and F. Scala), vol. 6, ch. 58, pp. 1-9. International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions.

Flores, R.*, Carbonell, A., De la Peña, M., and Gago, S. (2008). RNAs autocatalíticos: ribozimas de cabeza de martillo. In: Herramientas Biotecnológicas en Fitopatología (Eds. V. Pallas, P. Rodríguez-Palenzuela, C. Escobar and J.F. Marcos), ch. 22, pp. 407-420. Mundi-Prensa-SEF.

2006

Carbonell, A., De la Peña, M., Flores, R.* and Gago, S. (2006). Effects of the trinucleotide preceding the self-cleavage site on eggplant latent viroid hammerheads: differences in co- and post-transcriptional self-cleavage may explain the lack of AUC in most natural hammerheads. Nucleic Acids Research 34 (19), 5613-5622.

2004

Flores, R.*, Delgado, S., Gas, M.E., Carbonell, A., Molina, D., Gago, S. and De la Peña M. (2004). Viroids: the minimal non-coding RNAs with autonomous replication. FEBS Letters. 567 (1), 42-48.