Post Doc
Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms Department
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Villa Comunale
80121 Napoli - Italia
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Research Interests
My research integrates molecular biology, comparative genomics and functional bioinformatics to investigate how bioactive lipid pathways contribute to physiology, stress responses and ecological interactions in marine organisms. Before my PhD, I developed and tested new rearing systems for both solitary and colonial tunicates, which provided an experimental platform to address chemical-ecology questions at the organismal and community levels. Within this framework, I explored interactions between Botryllus schlosseri and extracts from the benthic diatom Cocconeis scutellum, providing initial evidence that a molecule known in nature as a sex-reversal inducer in the shrimp Hippolyte inermis can inhibit Botryllus larval settlement, plausibly conferring a competitive advantage by limiting access to substrate.
A second, highly impactful line of work emerging from these culture-based approaches concerned host–symbiont and host–parasite relationships in tunicates. In particular, I investigated the copepod Pachypygus gibber, previously assumed to be a commensal of Ciona robusta (and other tunicates), and my observations supported its reinterpretation as a parasite in sensu lato, based on strong negative effects on host fitness. Specifically, infestation was associated with marked impairment of offspring performance, with recruitment collapsing within days after settlement under experimental conditions, highlighting how cryptic associations can have disproportionate demographic consequences in marine benthic populations.
During my PhD, I focused on diatoms as tractable marine models to dissect the evolutionary and functional diversity of the prostaglandin pathway. A central theme of my work is pathway mining: the systematic identification, validation and evolutionary contextualisation of prostaglandin-related enzymes across genomes and transcriptomes, integrating curated homology searches, domain-architecture analysis and phylogenetic inference. This interest has led me to master a broad range of reproducible bioinformatic pipelines, allowing me to work seamlessly across RNA-seq and genome-scale resources (from read mapping and expression quantification to evidence-based and ab initio genome annotation), and to build analysis frameworks that remain robust in non-model marine species.
By combining comparative genomics with expression-based approaches, my analyses are now pushing beyond canonical assumptions on prostaglandin biosynthesis. In particular, current results are contributing to refine hypotheses on the emergence and diversification of the cyclooxygenase (COX) family, an enzyme system traditionally considered pivotal for prostaglandin production, across the animal lineage, including early-branching metazoans. Using an expanded comparative dataset and stringent orthology assessment, I am now obtaining evidence for a putative COX orthologue also in selected sponge species (Porifera), which would extend the inferred evolutionary emergence of COX deeper in the metazoan lineage. In parallel, my work is increasingly converging on coral biology and the potential roles of the PG pathway in cnidarian physiology and symbiosis. I have initiated experimental efforts to explore pathway dynamics during oral disc regeneration in the Mediterranean sea anemone Anemonia sp., while extending the same conceptual framework to investigate the putative involvement of prostaglandin-related signalling in coral–Symbiodiniaceae interactions, with the long-term aim of linking lipid signalling, regeneration and host–symbiont homeostasis under environmental stress.
Selected Publications
Scibelli, Sebastiano. «Species- and strain-specific gene expression of the prostaglandin pathway in Skeletonema marinoi and Thalassiosira rotula.» Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis The Open University, pubblicazione online ad accesso anticipato, 2025. https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00104497.
Scibelli, Sebastiano, Mirko Mutalipassi, Iole Di Capua, et al. «Parasitic Pachypygus Gibber Poses a Silent Threat to Reproduction and Development in Ciona Robusta». Scientific Reports 15, fasc. 1 (2025): 34594. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-18125-4.
Zupo, Valerio, Sebastiano Scibelli, Mirko Mutalipassi, et al. «Coupling Feeding Activity, Growth Rates and Molecular Data Shows Dietetic Needs of Ciona Robusta (Ascidiacea, Phlebobranchia) in Automatic Culture Plants». Scientific Reports 10, fasc. 1 (2020): 11295. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68031-0.
