Isotopic effect of macro- and microelements in ecosystems

Abstract

Isotopic effects occurring in living organisms due to metabolism are analyzed. The phenomenon of metabolism is considered in the classical sense as a combination of biochemical reactions (mainly enzyma­tic) that take place in the cells of living beings and provide the cleavage, synthesis and interconversion of complex compounds. The scope of use of natural isotopes is wide and diverse. Isotopes are carriers of information about the birth and transformation of molecules, and isotope fractionation is a chemical characteristic of a substance. Isotope metabolism consists in the intermolecular fractionation of isotopes at separate stages of biochemical reactions, namely the cleavage, synthesis and interconversion of complex compounds caused by differences in the structure and fundamental properties of isotope nuclei. It is proved that the fractionation of isotopes in chemical and biochemical reactions due to isotopic effects is based on two fundamental properties of atomic nuclei — mass and magnetic moment. The kinetic (mass-depen­ dent) isotopic effect distributes the isotopic nuclei by their masses, and the magnetic one fractionates the nuclei by their magnetic moments. The kinetic isotopic effect depends on the magnitude of the difference in the masses of isotopic molecules, temperature and the difference in the activation energies of isotopic forms. The magnetic isotope effect depends on the reaction rate in a single cell, its projection, magnetic moment and energy of electron-nuclear interaction. It is determined that the fractionation of isotopes in living organisms is that the relative content of one of the isotopes in this compound increases by reducing its content in the other. As a result, there is a fractionation of isotopes within one biological object.