FEBRUARY 15-16 - MINUTES OF MEETING 
4 
III. ORIENTATION 
Dr. Maxine Singer traced the history of the recombinant DNA controversy 
beginning with the earliest experiments and concerns about their unpre- 
dictable properties. Dr. Singer summarized the report of the "Berg 
Committee" in the summer of 1974, and emphasized that that report had 
recommended the deferral of only two classes of experiments. She out- 
lined the history from the Asilomar Conference to the issuance of the 
Guidelines in June 1976, and mentioned the Environmental Impact Statement 
which was published in the fall of 1977. Dr. Singer discussed the revised 
Guidelines and, in particular, the thinking that went into the decision 
to lower containment levels for experiments involving animal viruses. 
Dr. Singer reviewed the current knowledge about intervening sequences in 
the genomes of higher organisms. In response to a question. Dr. Singer 
described methods that can be used for the characterization of DMA. In 
response to another question. Dr. Novick outlined some of the basic facts 
of plasmid biology. There was a brief discussion of the status of Knowl- 
edge about the expression of foreign DNA in _E . coli . 
IV. HOST-VECTOR SYSTEMS IN EUKARYOTE MICROORGANISMS 
Consideration of the use of lower eukaryotes as host- vector systems was 
initiated at a meeting at NIH of a Working Group on Lower Eukaryote Host- 
vector Systems on September 16, 1978. The purpose of the meeting was to 
consider possible alternatives to the EK1 and EK2 systems. Based on the 
routes of escape, the possibility of mating with naturally occurring 
strains (and, therefore, potential transfer of cloned material) and the 
ecological niches available to Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Neurospora 
crassa, it was reasoned that considerable containment is afforded by 
normal laboratory strains of S. cerevisiae and mutationally modified 
strains of N. crassa . In addition, it was unanimously agreed that £ 3 . 
cerevisiae could meet the criteria of HV2 systems if transfer of cloned 
DNA was prevented by mutations that would prevent mating. A Working 
Group report was developed from this meeting and presented to the RAC 
at its October 3U-31, 1978 meeting. The report was modified and approved 
by the RAC (602). The recommendations were summarized and published for 
ccmment in the Federal Register on January 15, 1979. No comments were 
received during the 30-day period for comment. The RAC again considered 
the recommendations of the report on Host-Vector Sys teams in Eukaryote 
Microorganisms. Dr. Setlow summarized the recommendations of the report. 
A. NEUROSPORA CRASSA AND SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE AS HV1 SYSTEMS. 
The RAC considered the following proposal for approval of 
Neurospora crassa and Saccharomyces cerevisiae as HV1 systems: 
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