FEBRUARY 15-16 - MINUTES OF MEETING 
8 
This action is essentially equivalent to allowing the use of N. 
crassa as an "HVO" system. The scientific reason for preposing 
this is that that a wide variety of mutants are available in N. 
crassa . The restriction of experiments to a few HV1 strains 
would require considerable genetic manipulation and effort which 
could be avoided by use of unmodified laboratory strains. 
Several RAC members were concerned about the escape of N. crassa 
in aerosols or into the air as it forms spores that travel freely. 
Dr. Day stated that there is little danger of escape of spores 
when they are handled by an expert. Dr. Novick stated the pro- 
posal raises the basic issue of whether a wild type organism can 
be used as a host to clone DNA fran diverse organisms. Dr. Day 
pointed out that the proposal requires use of physical containment 
one level higher than required for HV1. Dr. Baltimore stated that 
as N. crassa does not grow in our climate, it is reasonable to con- 
sider wild type N. crassa to be as well contained as E. coli K-12. 
Dr. Rowe stated that a step from Pi to P2 is not equivalent to the 
step fran P2 to P3 as the P3 level would definitely contain spores. 
In response to a question as to whether wild type N. crassa has 
any biological containment. Dr. Day noted that N. crassa is not a 
pathogen and that there is no ecological niche for the organism. 
There are other species of Neurospora in the environment, but the 
possibility of genetic exchange with them is very remote. Dr. 
Gottesman expressed concern both about permitting use of P2 and 
about allowing blanket approval at the P3 level. Dr. Rowe pointed 
out that a hood is not required for transfer operations at the P2 
level . 
Since the intent is to have investigators exercise caution in the 
use of wild type strains,, Dr. Redford moved to accept this section 
of the report with the addition after the last word in the para- 
graph of a statement proposed by Dr. Day: "including the use of 
a biological safety cabinet." The motion passed by a vote of 18 
to 1 with 1 abstention. 
Executive Secretary's Note : However, in the discussion on the 
equivalence of lower eukaryote HV systems with those of Eh coli , 
(see section IV-D-3 of the Minutes) the RAC voted 18 to 0 with 2 
abstentions that unmodified laboratory strains of N. crassa be 
approved at the present time only for certain experiments. Ac<~ -d- 
ingly, this section will now read as follows: 
"Unmodified laboratory strains of N. crassa are approved 
at the P3 level of containment for shotgun experiments 
with phages, plasmids, and DNA fran Class 1 prokaryotes 
[1] and lower eukaryotes that do not produce polypeptide 
toxins. [34]" 
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