TY - JOUR

T1 - Spectroscopic Characterization of 3-Aminoisoxazole, a Prebiotic Precursor of Ribonucleotides

AU - Melli, Alessio

AU - Melosso, Mattia

AU - Lengsfeld, Kevin G.

AU - Bizzocchi, Luca

AU - Rivilla, Víctor M.

AU - Dore, Luca

AU - Barone, Vincenzo

AU - Grabow, Jens Uwe

AU - Puzzarini, Cristina

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: This work has been supported by MUR (PRIN Grant Number 202082CE3T) and by the University of Bologna (RFO funds). V.M.R. acknowledges support from the Comunidad de Madrid through the Atracción de Talento Investigador Modalidad 1 (Doctores con experiencia) Grant (COOL:Cosmic Origins of Life; 2019-T1/TIC-15379). Hannover: DFG (grants GR1344/4-1..3).

PY - 2022/5/20

Y1 - 2022/5/20

N2 - The processes and reactions that led to the formation of the first biomolecules on Earth play a key role in the highly debated theme of the origin of life. Whether the first chemical building blocks were generated on Earth (endogenous synthesis) or brought from space (exogenous delivery) is still unanswered. The detection of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium provides valuable support to the latter hypothesis. To gather more insight, here we provide the astronomers with accurate rotational frequencies to guide the interstellar search of 3-aminoisoxazole, which has been recently envisaged as a key reactive species in the scenario of the so-called RNA-world hypothesis. Relying on an accurate computational characterization, we were able to register and analyze the rotational spectrum of 3-aminoisoxazole in the 6–24 GHz and 80–320 GHz frequency ranges for the first time, exploiting a Fourier-transform microwave spectrometer and a frequency-modulated millimeter/sub-millimeter spectrometer, respectively. Due to the inversion motion of the – NH2 group, two states arise, and both of them were characterized, with more than 1300 lines being assigned. Although the fit statistics were affected by an evident Coriolis interaction, we were able to produce accurate line catalogs for astronomical observations of 3-aminoisoxazole.

AB - The processes and reactions that led to the formation of the first biomolecules on Earth play a key role in the highly debated theme of the origin of life. Whether the first chemical building blocks were generated on Earth (endogenous synthesis) or brought from space (exogenous delivery) is still unanswered. The detection of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium provides valuable support to the latter hypothesis. To gather more insight, here we provide the astronomers with accurate rotational frequencies to guide the interstellar search of 3-aminoisoxazole, which has been recently envisaged as a key reactive species in the scenario of the so-called RNA-world hypothesis. Relying on an accurate computational characterization, we were able to register and analyze the rotational spectrum of 3-aminoisoxazole in the 6–24 GHz and 80–320 GHz frequency ranges for the first time, exploiting a Fourier-transform microwave spectrometer and a frequency-modulated millimeter/sub-millimeter spectrometer, respectively. Due to the inversion motion of the – NH2 group, two states arise, and both of them were characterized, with more than 1300 lines being assigned. Although the fit statistics were affected by an evident Coriolis interaction, we were able to produce accurate line catalogs for astronomical observations of 3-aminoisoxazole.

KW - astrochemistry

KW - large amplitude motion

KW - origin of life

KW - prebiotic molecules

KW - rotational spectroscopy

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130509943&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/molecules27103278

DO - 10.3390/molecules27103278

M3 - Article

C2 - 35630755

AN - SCOPUS:85130509943

VL - 27

JO - MOLECULES

JF - MOLECULES

SN - 1420-3049

IS - 10

M1 - 3278

ER -