FEBRUARY 15-16 - MINUTES OF MEETING 
15 
"HV1 Bacillus subtilis systems will be equivalent to EK1 
in the physical containment requirements for specific 
experiments." 
Section III-B-1 of the Guidelines already states: 
"Host-vector systems which have been approved as HV1 
systems may be used under P2 containment conditions for 
shotgun experiments with phages, plasmids, and DNA from 
nonpathogenic prokaryotes which do not produce polypeptide 
toxins. [34] Other classes of recombinant DNA experiments 
with these HV1 systems will require prior approval and 
classification by NIH." 
Ttie RAC voted 12 to 0 with 6 abstentions that classes of recombinant 
DNA experiments with B. subtilis HV1 systems (other than those 
specified above) will be equivalent to EK1 in the physical contain- 
ment requirements for specific experiments. 
D. ADDITION TO SECTION III-B-3, NCN-HV1 SYSTEMS. 
Ihe RAC considered a proposal in the Working Group report to amend 
Section III-B-3 of the Guidelines by addition of the following: 
"In those cases where genetic exchange has not been demon- 
strated between two bacterial species A and B, neither of 
which is pathogenic for man, animals, or plants, recombinant 
DNA experiments involving only A and B can be conducted under 
P3 containment. [2A] " 
In response to a question about the rationale for this proposal, 
Dr. Campbell stated that the main focus of the 1976 Guidelines 
was on E. ooli K-12 host-vector systems. Now, experiments with 
other prokaryote host-vector systems are possible and of great 
interest. Unless this proposal is accepted, non-exempt experi- 
ments with prokaryotic host-vector systems, in general, could 
be approved only for certified HV systems. Some members of the 
RAC felt that requiring P3 containment was overly stringent. In 
response to a question by Dr. Krimsky as to whether IBCs could 
approve lower containment for these experiments. Dr. Gartla.id 
expressed the opinion that the Guidelines permit IBCs to lower 
containment levels for characterized or purified DNA only for 
Eh ooli K-12 host-vector systems. 
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