VI I I. CONTINUATION OF PROPOSAL TO AMEND NIH GUIDELINES TO REFER 
SPECIFICALLY TO RESEARCH WITH PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 
Dr. Fedoroff called the RAC's attention to tab 1291 which was a 
document she had prepared summarizing the meetings of the sub- 
group dealing with plants. She said the form of the document was 
different from that of the NIH Guidelines, and this pre-sented 
problems to which she and others were sensitive. She said she 
would present the rationale for the proposal, and Dr. Vidaver 
would make a presentation on the biological properties of some 
plant pathogens, the principles of which are key to the contain- 
ment guidelines proposed. 
Dr. Fedoroff said the rationale for the proposal was based on: 
(1) the recognition that organisms were being dealt with in plant 
experiments have no recognizable health hazard for either higher 
animals or humans; (2) the objective of the NIH Guidelines is to 
minimize the possibility of deleterious effects on organisms and 
ecosystems outside the experimental facility; and (3) the need to 
protect the experiment itself from animals and microorganisms 
from outside the facility. 
Dr. Fedoroff noted that not every deleterious effect had been 
taken into account. Her two major concerns were the spread of a 
particular pathogenic organism from the greenhouse to a field 
outside containing plants susceptible to it, and the uninten- 
tional establishment of an organism in an ecosystem in which it 
did not pre-exist and in which it would have detrimental effects 
on that ecosystem. 
Dr. Fedoroff said there was enough experience in both the 
greenhouse and in the field to justify basing these new NIH 
Guidelines on standard practices used by plant pathologists and 
breeders despite the fact that these standard practices are not 
always consistent. Furthermore, she said a basic principle is 
that containment appropriate to a recombinant organism should be 
determined by the biological properties of the original organism 
and how it was changed not by the technique used to change it. 
Dr. Fedoroff said the most important thing in considering the 
modification of the NIH Guidelines to cover plants, plant- 
associated animals , and microorganisms is an understanding of 
how microorganisms associated with plants propagate, become 
established, or don't become established. She then asked 
Dr. Vidaver to make her presentation on this topic. 
Dr. Vidaver said there were two myths that had surfaced about 
microorganisms in the environment and associated with plants: 
(1) microorganisms don't normally move around, and (2) micro- 
organisms readily and easily become associated with plants. Both 
of these myths were false. 
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Recombinant DNA Research, Volume 13 
