P Systems and the Modeling of Biochemical Oscillations

In this paper we discuss the role that P systems have in the description of oscillatory biochemical processes once the membrane system evolution depends on the process parameters. This discussion focuses on a specific application example, meanwhile it includes a general definition of oscillation based on which we want to explore the meaning of oscillatory behaviors more deeply. The symbolic-based approach to biochemical processes such as that provided by P systems has recently resulted in insightful model descriptions. For this reason we expect it to turn useful in computational systems biology, whose models must deal with the twofold nature of the cell that is a continuous biochemical reactor ruled by discrete information contained in the DNA.