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.