ON THE MECHANISMS OF INFORMATION TRANSFER IN ISOTOPIC BIOLOGY

A regular crystal structure in which the lattice sites are occupied by the various isotopes of the same chemical element has enormous potential for the storage of information. Based on this idea, a model of an alternative genetic code is discussed in which elementary codons are represented by the various spatial combinations of different isotopes. In crystals with relatively large unit cell (e.g. boron) a single unit cell may play a role of an elementary isotopic codon. Some mechanisms of information transfer in such “isotopic biology” may involve localized electronic and vibrational states as well as isotopic variations of the diffusivity. Some possibilities of experimental testing of the proposed hypothesis are indicated.