P systems with proteins on membranes characterize PSPACE

The paper studies algorithmic properties of operations with membrane proteins modeled within the framework of membrane systems (also called P systems). Membrane systems are biologically inspired models of parallel and distributed computing based on the information processing in cells and cellular membranes. We show that the computational potential of P systems with proteins on membranes is equivalent to that of parallel computing models as the alternating Turing machine or the PRAM. These abstract machines characterize by their polynomial time-bounded computations the class PSPACE, and simultaneously they serve as idealized models of real parallel machines. Therefore, this and other related results suggest the existence of a homology between the potential of silicon and biological parallel information processing.