8 
convened, and recoraraendat ions from that group are also before you. 
In addition to these general recommendat ions , other specific issues 
follow for your review: 
• Section (g), "cloning of viral genomes from eukaryotic cell 
DNA" (F.R. 49601), does not give guidance on containment 
categories for "shotgun" experiments attempting to clone nucleo- 
tide sequences of integrated DNA viruses. At present this section 
only refers to endogenous retrovirus genomes. It is not clear 
from the Guidelines what the Committee suggests as containment 
levels for shotgun experiments attempting to clone integrated 
polyoma or SV40 sequences. I would appreciate your comments. 
• It was urged by several commentators that the CDC classification 
for Class 2 organisms be revised so that it does not include 
harmless types of bacteria. What are the Committee's views on 
providing in the Guidelines that the Director of HIH, on 
recommendation of your Committee, may designate certain of the 
agents in CDC's Class 2 as Class 1 agents for purposes of the 
Guidelines? 
• A commentator urged that the cloning into E^ col i K-12 of 
"shotguns" of all nonpathogenic bacteria be placed at the 
P2 ♦ EK1 or Pi ♦ EK2 level without extensive characterization 
( Federal Register , page 49602, first column). What are the 
Committee's views on this recommendation which would eliminate 
the need for characterization and approval by the RAC? 
• It was noted that experiments involving many prokaryotes that 
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