extended use of penicillin and other amtibiotics has caused 
great consternation on the part of medical clinicians who 
fear that these antibiotics will soon be ineffective in 
combatting disease. The DEIS should have discussed the 
medical implications of tramsf erring R-factors, especially 
in view of the interest expressed on p.28 of assigning high 
priority to recombinamt research involving immunoglobin 
proteins. Reseaurch on R-factor transference and immunoglobin 
reaction mechanism could through accidental escape or lc±)oratory 
error spread drug resistance to an even greater extent than 
found naturally today. In the use of antibiotics, it would 
seem more important to have basic clinical application than 
to engage in academic research which might i nadverteji^tly void 
medical usuage of these drugs. A discussion of priorities in 
the area is certainly in order. 
3) In the discussion of accurate animal gene expression 
in bacteria, the DEIS states that. " The protein products 
characterized to date were not faithful products of the 
information in the genes.... By and large, accurate expression 
of the genes has not yet been demonstrated, although it may 
occur at a low frequency" (p.22) These statements are alarming 
for they suggest the possibility that the entire purpose of 
the Guidelines in assigning hazard levels to various experiments 
might be baseless. If we can never be assured that a purified 
gene inserted into a host will not result in some totally 
unpredictable characteristic, then every recombinant experiment 
is potentially demgerous and should only be done under maximum 
- 9 - 
Appendix K — 89 
