中文摘要：

细胞内丰富的信息处理机制和细胞计算的巨并行性一直吸引着科学家构建细胞计算机.科学家利用细胞内的信息处理机制开发了不少模仿简单电子器件功能的细胞计算部件,如细胞布尔逻辑门、细胞记忆单元等,但这些部件没有充分利用细胞计算的巨并行性特点.DNA重组酶Hin能催化DNA片段的翻转反应,通过切换DNA片段的方向来调控基因的表达.该文利用DNA重组酶Hin的这一性质,以合成生物学中广泛使用的生物砖为材料,以大肠杆菌Escherichia coli为宿主细胞,以DNA重组酶Hin为计算工具,构建了一个解决可满足性问题的细胞计算模型.该模型中,每个细胞可独立地生成并判定可满足性问题的一个解,数以亿计的细胞可检查数以亿计的可能解.该模型充分利用细胞计算的巨并行性,显示了细胞计算的巨大潜力.

英文摘要：

Scientists have been trying to construct cell computers because of the diversity of information-processing mechanisms within a cell and the vast parallelism of cellular computing. Based on the information-processing mechanisms within a cell, scientists have successfully con- structed many cellular computing devices such as Boolean logic gates and memory elements which simulated the functions of simple electronic devices. However, these cellular computing devices ignored the vast parallelism of cellular computing. This study has constructed a cellular compu- ting model which can solve Satisfiability Problem in Escherichia coli using Biobricks. Biobricks are widely used in synthetic biology. The site-specific DNA recombinase Hin, which can mediate inversion of DNA segments that represent variables, was used to produce the solution. In this model, each cell can produce and examine a solution of Satisfiability Problem. As a result, billions of cells can explore billions of possible solutions. This model makes full use of the vast parallelism of cellular computing. It is demonstrated that cellular computing may pave the way to address NP-complete problem using the inherent advantages of cells.