Computing by plasmids

Abstract In this work, we propose a new model of computation under the membrane computing paradigm to provide distributed mobile computing. Our work is inspired by plasmids that are biological entities that constitute mobile genetic elements. We introduce computational plasmids in the framework of P systems that are the computational models for membrane computing. Computational plasmids are defined by a finite set of rules that can be mobilized throughout the entire working space of the P system, according to a finite set of mobility rules. Thus, when designing a P system to generate sets, calculate functions, or solve problems, it is enough to define a finite set of plasmids along with a finite set of their mobility rules. In this work, we introduce the formal model, we explain all the details of our proposal, and we demonstrate its completeness through different simulations of register machines.