Ignazio Carbone was born in Toronto, Canada. He received his B.S. degree in toxicology and pharmacology in 1992, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in evolutionary biology in 1994 and 2000 from the University of Toronto. He joined the Department of Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in 2002. Dr. Carbone is internationally recognized for his advances in understanding how evolutionary forces contribute to population structure, developing novel and user-friendly analytical tools for contemporary population analysis, and translating this knowledge to application. He is an authority and pioneer in applying coalescent-based analytical methods to investigate complex underlying evolutionary processes that have shaped contemporary populations of bacteria, fungi and viruses. These analytical tools and methods have broad application beyond the plant pathology and mycology communities. For example, they are currently used to test hypotheses related to emergence of modern humans from different continents based on genealogical analysis of the human Y chromosome and to understand evolutionary processes that drive diversification in fungal endophytes.
Carbone's major contributions have come from his seminal research on the evolution of aflatoxin biosynthesis by species of Aspergillus. His research focuses on the central question of whether secondary metabolites evolved prior to, along with or subsequent to speciation events. To address this question, he has combined inferences from macro- and micro-evolutionary analyses to understand the conservation of fungal bioreactive compounds among species of Aspergillus, and how genetic diversity is generated and maintained on a spatial and temporal scale. These inferences are based on a combined analysis of global populations, genomic arrangement of the aflatoxin gene cluster, and heritability of aflatoxin biosynthesis.
Carbone's extensive population analysis contributed to the discovery of the Petromyces sexual stage of Aspergillus flavus. By choosing populations of A. flavus with 1:1 mating type ratios, Carbone and his colleague Bruce Horn produced the sexual stage in the laboratory. The demonstration of sexual recombination within this species allowed Carbone to challenge and disprove the currently accepted dogma that recombination occurs only within populations of A. flavus via parasexual recombination and between strains within the same vegetative compatibility group (VCG). The ability to perform sexual crosses in the laboratory demonstrated that gene transfer is not restricted by VCG. Results from mating experiments also identified hot spots for recombination within the aflatoxin biosynthetic cluster and provided evidence that non-toxigenic strains can acquire the ability to produce aflatoxin. These laboratory data are consistent with population analyses showing that populations with evidence of recent recombination contain a greater percentage of aflatoxin producing isolates than clonal populations.
Carbone's research findings have broad implications for developing more effective approaches for deploying biological control agents in Africa and other parts of the world. First, the population genetics data of A. flavus provides critical a priori knowledge for developing and selecting more effective biological control strains. Carbone showed that introducing closely related non-toxigenic genotypes into native soil populations of A. flavus is more effective than introduced unrelated genotypes. Second, information on recombination within A. flavus supports a management strategy based on application of lineage-specific strains of compatible mating type that can shift populations toward less aflatoxin. Without integration of information on biogeography, population genetics, and reproductive biology, reliable models to predict and manage populations of A. flavus would not have been possible.
Carbone also has made significant advancements in developing tools that enable biologists to use complex evolutionary methods. One toolkit, called SNAP, is widely used and represents a significant advance in software for analysis of populations. The SNAP toolkit is powerful for addressing questions related to species boundaries, phylogeography, and origin/spread of organisms. Dr. Carbone has conducted several workshops on these tools at APS annual meetings and other scientific conferences. The popularity of these workshops is further engendered by Dr. Carbone's engaging and passionate style of teaching.
Recently, Dr. Carbone has integrated metagenomic, population genetics, and phylogenetic tools into a comprehensive package that is freely available to the public through a web-based portal at NCSU. This suite of tools, (DeCIFR), provides powerful analytical methods accessible to researchers with varying levels of expertise. DeCIFR offers users curated, multi-locus datasets for improved phylogenetic placement of unknown fungi at different taxonomic scales. The T-BAS program within DeCIFR offers a central, global and community-based approach to describe new species. The wide adaptation of these tools is demonstrated by emerging publications across many high impact journals that target both general biologists and specialists in the field that study beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms.
Dr. Carbone has multiple publications in high impact disciplinary journals including Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Multiple citations of Dr. Carbone's research reflect the use of his conceptual insight and tools by scientists investigating evolutionary patterns of genes and gene clusters and studying disease ecology and pathogen diversity. In recognition of the impact of his research, Dr. Carbone was awarded the C J. Alexopoulos Prize awarded by the Mycological Society of America as an outstanding early-career mycologist in 2008. In 2009, he received the Syngenta Award given by Syngenta Crop Protection to an APS member for his research contributions, and in 2014 he was recognized with the APS Ruth Allen Award for his outstanding, innovative research contributions.
In addition to his research program, Dr. Carbone is the Director of the Center for Integrated Fungal Research (CIFR) at NCSU. The Center is composed of 20 scientists across four academic colleges focused on modeling, predicting, and managing consequences of environmental impacts on microbes and microbial processes from sub-cellular to large-scale ecosystems. In 2015, CIFR launched the Plant Soil Microbial Community Consortium, an industry-supported research program within CIFR focused on plant and soil microbiomes. Carbone was recently invited to co-chair a CAST publication on the positive impact of crop microbiomes. Carbone's seminal contributions to the scientific community have secured his leadership role at the forefront of microbial evolutionary biology. He has provided a conceptual framework for understanding the evolution of populations and made a major contribution toward managing a disease that has a global impact on animal, plant and human health.
