P Systems Simulating Bacterial Conjugation: Universality and Properties

Issue title: Methods for Distributed and Concurrent Systems: Special Issue on the occasion of the 60th Birthday of Professor Gabriel Ciobanu

Guest editors: Bogdan Aman, Jetty Kleijn, Maciej Koutny and Dorel Lucanu

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Păun, Andrei^{a; b; *} | Rodríguez-Patón, Alfonso^c

Affiliations: [a] Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bucharest, Str. Academiei nr.14, sector 1, C.P. 010014, Bucuresti, Romania | [b] Bioinformatics Department, National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Splaiul Independenttei, Bucuresti, Romania. apaun@fmi.unibuc.ro | [c] Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo s/n, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain. arpaton@fi.upm.es

Correspondence: [*] Address for correspondence: Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bucharest, Str. Academiei nr.14, sector 1, C.P. 010014, Bucuresti, Romania

Abstract: We refine the modeling in the P systems area of the way bacteria transmit genetic information in bacterial colonies, specifically the conjugation process. We study this new model from the computational power perspective using methods and ideas in the area; we are able to prove the universality of these systems. We show that systems working in a homogeneous manner and using only 75 species of objects in the regions and 13 species of “on-membrane” objects are enough for reaching universality. The system starts in a initial state with only few (nine) bacteria needed and the “bacteria” from this system are homogeneous, all have the same rules.

Keywords: P systems, Bacterial conjugation, universality, small universal machines

DOI: 10.3233/FI-2017-1532

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 153, no. 1-2, pp. 87-103, 2017