  In this review we describe the general geometrical framework of brane world
constructions in orientifolds of type IIA string theory with D6-branes wrapping
3-cycles in a Calabi-Yau 3-fold. These branes generically intersect in points
on the internal space, and the patterns of intersections govern the chiral
fermion spectra. We discuss how the open string spectra in intersecting brane
models are constructed, how the Standard Model can be embedded, and also how
supersymmetry can be realized in this class of string vacua. After the general
considerations we specialize the discussion to the case of orbifold backgrounds
with intersecting D6-branes and to the quintic Calabi-Yau manifold. Then, we
discuss parts of the effective action of intersecting brane world models.
Specifically we compute from the Born-Infeld action of the wrapped D-branes the
tree-level, D-term scalar potential, which is important for the stability of
the considered backgrounds as well as for questions related to supersymmetry
breaking. Second, we review the recent computation concerning of gauge coupling
unification and also of one-loop gauge threshold corrections in intersecting
brane world models. Finally we also discuss some aspects of proton decay in
intersecting brane world models.
