ITS COMMENTS TO THE NIH ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND TO THE DIRECTOR 
OF THE NIH. 
THE REVISIONS PROPOSED REPRESENT A SIGNIFICANT RELAXATION OF THE 
CONTAINMENT CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR MOST CLASSES OF RECOMBINANT 
DNA EXPERIMENTS AND THEY ALSO PROVIDE GREATER FLEXIBILITY IN 
ATTAINING PARTICULAR LEVELS OF PHYSICAL CONTAINMENT. THE EMBO 
COMMITTEE CONSIDERS THAT THESE CHANGES ARE JUSTIFIED FOR THE 
REASONS DISCUSSED BELOW AND SUGGESTS THAT THE LEVELS OF CONTAIN” 
MENT FOR CERTAIN CLASSES OF EXPERIMENTS SHOULD INDEED BE REDUCED 
SOMEWHAT FURTHER THAN IS PROPOSED BY THE NIH ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 
THE PRINCIPAL REASONS FOR RECOMMENDING SIGNIFICANT RELAXATION OF 
THE CONTAINMENT MEASURES FOR RECOMBINANT DNA EXPERIMENTS IN 
GENERAL* AND THOSE WHICH INVOLVE THE USE OF E.COLI KI2 AS THE 
HOST ORGANISM IN PARTICULAR* ARE TWO- FOLD. FIRST* WE ARE BECOMING 
INCREASINGLY AWARE THAT IN NATURE THERE IS A CONSIDERABLE 
POTENTIAL FOR EXCHANGE OF GENES THAT DOES NOT DEPEND UPON 
EXTENSIVE HOMOLOGIES BETWEEN DNA SEQUENCES. EXCHANGE OF GENES 
BETWEEN BACTERIA AND HIGHER PLANTS* FOR EXAMPLE* HAS NOW BEEN 
SHOWN TO OCCUR IN NATURE. MOREOVER* IN THE LABORATORY IT HAS 
BEEN SHOWN THAT E.COLI PRODUCING RESTRICTION ENZYME NOT ONLY 
TAKE UP DNA BUT ALSO INCORPORATE IT INTO THEIR CHROMOSOMES BY 
AN IN V.IVO PROCESS THAT INVOLVES THE ENDOGENOUS RESTRICTION 
ENZYMES. IN SHORT THE SORTS OF GENE COMBINATIONS THAT. CAN BE 
GENERATED IN THE LABORATORY BY IN VITRO RECOMBINANT DNA METHODS 
[Appendix A — 87] 
