Simulation of a bounded symport/antiport P system with Brane calculi

Membrane systems (also called P systems) and Brane calculi have been recently introduced as formal models inspired by the structure and the functioning of living cells, but having in mind different goals. The aim of Membrane systems was the formal investigation of the computational nature and power of various features of the cell, while Brane calculi aims to define a model capable of a faithful and intuitive representation of various biological processes. The common background of the two formalisms and the recent growing of interests in applying P systems in Systems Biology have raised the natural question of bridging this two research areas. The present paper goes in this direction, as it presents a direct simulation of a variant of P systems by means of Brane calculi. In particular, we consider a Brane calculus based on three operations called Mate/Bud/Drip, and we show how to use such system to simulate Simple symport/antiport P systems, a variant of P systems purely based on communication of objects. As an example, a simplified sodium–potassium pump modeled in Simple SA is encoded in Mate/Bud/Drip Brane calculus.