APRIL 27-28-MINirTES OF MEETING 
17 
The RAC went on record that *1.776 (pBR322) should be tested for EK3 
properties. 
IV. CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS t-EETING 
Dr. Hel inski requested that Page 4 of the Minutes of the October- 
Nov ember , 1978 meeting be modified to indicate that the Falmouth 
meeting had served as a fortm for the exchange of previously published 
data on the ecology of E. coli . The Minutes were approved subject 
to this and several other minor modifications. 
V. REQUESTS FOR REDUCTION OF COtTAINMENT LEVELS FOR CHARACTERIZED CLONES 
A. The Germ it tee reviewed a request by Dr. Donald Brown for approval 
to lower the containment levels to P2 + EKl for characterized 
clones containing the 5SDNA frcm Xe nopus , and to introduce minor 
modifications in the clones by reaction with sodium bisulfite 
or Si nuclease. The Canruttee noted that deletions or substitutions 
produced by chemical reaction would not drastically alter the 
DMA. The Corrmittee approved the reduction of containment levels 
for the characterized clones to P2 + EKl, and unanimously passed 
a motion that the clones can continue to be handled under P2 + 
EKl conditions after chemical treatment as described in the 
request. 
Dr. Rowe then made a motion that investigators who wish to modify 
characterized clones by mutagenesis or by minor substitutions or 
insertions need not obtain approval from QRDA before working at 
lowered containment levels. In such cases, approval by the IBC 
is recommended but not required. The motion was passed unanimously. 
B. A request by Dr. Fonald Reeder to lower the containment level 
for a series of clones from Xe nopus was considered. The request 
includes a series of rigorously characterized clones of ribosanal 
genes and subclones thereof, the cloning of ribosomal ENA of 
greater than 99% purity frcm the somatic cells of a single frog, 
the cloning of histone genes from Xenopus embryos, and the cloning 
of genes from Xenopus oocytes. The RAC unanimously approved all 
of the requests at the P2 + EKl levels of containment. 
C. A request frcm Dr. Robert Boeder to allow the propagation of a 
hybrid vector composed of lambda phage and a 3000 base segment 
frcm Xenopus containing tRNA genes was approved by the RAC at 
P2 + EKl containment. Most of the Xenopus insert consists of 
spacer which was not considered by the Committee to be harmful. 
D. A request by Dr. Sherman Weissman to lower the containment level 
to P2 + EKl for characterized plastids JW101 and JW151 containing 
human and gaimva glob in ENA was unanimously approved. The inserts 
are 800 bases long and partial sequencing data on 50 bases shows 
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