Greenhouse Biosafety

Hector Quemada
Program For Donald Danforth Plant
Science Center
 U.S. Guidelines
•  NIH Guidelines for Experiments Involving
Recombinant DNA Molecules
www4.od.nih.gov/oba/rac/guidelines/
guidelines.html

  BL1-P   BL3-P
  BL2-P   BL4-P
h"p://www.isb.vt.edu/cfdocs/greenhouse_manual.cfm  
 BL1-P
•  No evidence that modified organism can
survive and spread in the environment
•  If accidentally released, would not pose an
environmental risk
–  Transgenic potato plants containing genes for
insect resistance from primitive potato cultivars
–  DNA-modified common microorganisms that
cannot spread rapidly & not known to have
negative effects on natural or managed
ecosystems, e.g. Rhizobium and
Agrobacterium.
•  transgenic Rhizobium containing Agrobacterium genes
known to affect root colonization
•  plants using Agrobacterium DNA segments as part of the
transformation process.
 BLP-2
•  Transgenic plants and associated
organisms
–  if released outside the greenhouse, could be
viable in the surrounding environment
–  would have a negligible impact or could be
readily managed.
•  Transgenic plants that may exhibit a new
weedy characteristic or may be capable of
interbreeding with weeds or related
species growing in the vicinity.
–  Greenhouse tests of transgenic sunflower
containing wheat genes for resistance to
Sclerotinia
 BLP-2
•  Transgenic experiments using entire
genome of an indigenous infectious agent or
pathogen.
•  Transgenic plant-associated microorganisms
–  indigenous to the area and potentially harmful to
the environment but manageable
–  exotic but have no potential for causing serious
harm to managed or natural ecosystems.
•  Experiments using plant-associated
transgenic insects or small animals that
pose no threat to managed or natural
ecosystems
 BL3-P
•  Transgenic plants, plant pathogens, or other
organisms that have a recognized potential for
significant detrimental impact on the environment.
•  GMO or non-GMO plant research that involves
exotic infectious agents capable of causing serious
environmental harm
–  pest or pathogen requires containment; the transgenic
plant itself may pose no threat.
•  Transgenic plants containing genes from an exotic
infectious agent in which a complete functional
genome of the infectious agent could possibly be
reconstituted.
 BL3-P
•  Transgenic plants or organisms that contain genes
coding for vertebrate toxins
•  Transgenic microbial pathogens of insects or small
animals that associate with plants, if the pathogen
has the potential to cause harm to the local
environment.
 BL4-P
•  Exotic, readily transmissible infectious agents that
are potentially serious pathogens of major crops,
•  and performed in the presence of their arthropod
vector.
–  to test the efficacy of the maize streak virus coat protein
to protect corn plants against infection by that virus would
necessarily use its leafhopper vector,Cicadulina spp., in
challenge inoculations. This devastating virus is not
found in the United States, however leafhopper species
capable of transmitting it are present. Thus the
experiment using both virus and vector poses a
significant risk should either escape the containment
facility; in this case, the transgenic maize plant does not
itself pose a risk.
Facility Inspection Checklist

Starting p. 50