APRIL 27-28-MIM7TES OF MEETING 
24 
safety of the newly proposed experiments. However, concern was 
expressed that the yeast hosts, in general, cannot be considered 
to be contained as they are capable of surviving in nature. The 
opinion was expressed that the proposed experiments appear to be 
exceptions to the 1976 Guidelines, and that perhaps the experi- 
ments should be deferred until yeast strains with reduced survival 
in nature are identified. A proposal was made that perhaps the 
concept of an experiment "being safe" should be an alternative 
to the requirement for biological containment in the host. 
The RAC then voted unanimously to approve the requests of Drs. 
Davis and Fir tel subject to the submission of appropriate MUAs. 
It is the sense of the RAC that ORDA should use these decisions 
as precedents for approving the insertion of DNA sequences from 
other lower eukaryotes into cerevisiae . 
F. Transfer of DNA to Phyccmyces 
ORDA asked the RAC to review an MUA submitted by Dr. Max Delbruck 
of the California Institute of Technology. The MUA proposes 
three series of experiments under Pi conditions: 
1. Transfer of yeast 2 y DNA circles to Phyccmyces. 
2. Transfer into Phyccmyces of yeast 2 y DNA circles with insertion 
of an E. coli gene coding for a suitable enzyme marker. 
3. Transfer into Phyccmyces of yeast 2 y DNA circles with insertions 
of Phycomyces genes. 
The RAC discussed these experiments at the same time as the 
experiments described in itan E (above) were considered, and 
many of the comments made by the RAC apply also to these 
experiments. The RAC unanimously voted to approve the experi- 
ments in Phyccmyces based on the precedent of approval of 
self-cloning experiments in yeast. 
G. Propagation of Recombinant Plasmids in Plant Pathogens 
Dr. Nicholas Panopoulos of the University of California, Berkeley, 
asked the RAC to review an MUA dealing with an investigation of 
the ability of various recombinant plasmids to replicate in plant 
pathogenic bacteria. The immediate objective of the research is 
to test various plasmid vectors for the ability to replicate in 
certain species of phytopathogenic bacteria, the ability to be 
mobilized from E. coli hosts into these species, and the ability 
to transform these species. The bacterial hosts to be used 
include Pseudcmonas species, Erwinia species, and Xanthcmonas 
species. The long-term objective is to develop host-vector 
systems for certain species of plant pathogenic bacteria. The 
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