Generalized P-Systems with Splicing and Cutting/Recombination

P-systems recently were introduced by Gheorghe Pă un as a new model for computations based on membrane structures. Using the membranes as a kind of filter for specific objects when transferring them into an inner compartment turned out to be a very powerful mechanism in combination with suitable rules to be applied within the membranes in the model of generalized P-systems, GP-systems for short. In general, GP-systems allow for the simulation of graph controlled grammars of arbitrary type based on productions working on single objects. In this paper we consider GP-systems as computing devices using splicing or cutting and recombination of strings. Various variants of such systems are proved to have universal computational power, e.g., we show how test tube systems based on splicing or cutting and recombination of strings can be simulated by the corresponding GP-systems.