DNA Computing Based on Splicing: The Existence of Universal Computers.dvi

Splicing systems are generative mechanisms based on the splicing operation introduced by Tom Head as a model of DNA recombination. We prove that the generative power of finite extended splicing systems equals that of Turing machines, provided we consider multisets or provided a control mechanism is added. We also show that there exist universal splicing systems with the properties above, i. e. there exists a universal splicing system with fixed components which can simulate the behaviour of any given splicing system, when an encoding of the particular splicing system is added to its set of axioms. In this way the possibility of designing programmable DNA computers based on the splicing operation is proved.