SEPTEMBER 6-7 - MINUTES OF MEETING 
4 
Dr. Gottesman agreed and said that Ct. Campbell's solution clarifies 
the proposal. She said that this is really a clarification and not 
a change in the Guidelines. C*r. Novick raised the question of the 
relationship of this proposal to the E. coli K-12/P1 proposal to be 
considered later in the meeting. It was agreed that action on the 
latter proposal should not be anticipated. Dr. Gottesman then moved 
that the RAC accept Dr. Campbell's recommendation. The RAC voted 12 to 0 
to: 
1. Insert at the end of Section II-D-l-a-(l) of the 
1978 Guidelines the words "except as specified under 
Section III-A-l-b-(l)" ; and 
2. Insert prior to the last sentence of Section 
II-A-l-b-(l) of the 1978 Guidelines, the words 
"When a non-oon j ugat ive vector is used, the E. coli 
K-12 host may contain conjugation proficient 
plasmids, either autonomous or integrated, or 
generalized transducing phages." 
V. DEFINITION OF INDIGENOUS PLASMID 
In order to clarify the question of what constitutes an indigenous plasmid 
for the purposes of an exemption from the Guidelines under Section I-E-3, 
Dr. Novick had proposed a tentative definition at the May 1979 RAC meeting. 
At that time, a motion passed to defer consideration until the September 
meeting after review by the plasmid subcommittee. Following endorsement of 
the proposed definition by the plasmid subcommittee, it was resubmitted to 
the RAC (727) for consideration at the September meeting. At this meeting, 
the RAC discussed the proposed definition and agreed that the term "physiological 
measures" needs further clarification. C*r. Novick agreed to add an 
additional paragraph. C*r. Campbell proposed, and it was agreed, that 
the words "as an autonomous replicon" should be deleted from the definition. 
It was agreed that the interpretation of "occurs naturally" would have 
to be left with the local IBCs. The RAC then voted 12 to 0 to accept 
Dr. Novick' s proposal, as amended, (with a paragraph to be added clarifying 
the meaning of "physiological measures" by examples, including the statement 
that protoplast fusion is not considered a physiological measure,) 
as follows: 
"A plasmid may be regarded as indigenous to a given 
species if it occurs naturally in that species or may 
be transferred to it be well-established physiological 
measures and is maintained there. 
The paragraph to be added, supplied by Dr. Novick after the meeting, is as follows 
By "physiological measures" is meant transfer processes 
that are known to occur naturally in the species under 
consideration. Included are processes such as trans- 
formation, conjugation, and transduction. Excluded 
are processes such as transformation in enteric bacteria, 
protoplast fusion in bacteria, and transformation of 
protoplasts." 
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