Splicing systems and molecular processes

The splicing system concept and its history are reviewed. A proposed laboratory splicing scheme is discussed. This scheme has suggested that splicing schemes be regarded as specifying not only languages, but also dynamical systems. As an example of a new formal result on splicing languages, a theorem is stated that characterizes those regular languages that are generated by splicing systems which require only one sided context. The theorem provides an algorithm for deciding whether any arbitrary regular language can be so generated.