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THE ORCBS > Biological Safety > Programs & Guidelines > Biosafety Manual >
Plant biological safety levels specify physical and biological containment conditions and practices suitable for conducting greenhouse experiments involving recombinant DNA-containing plants, plant-associated microorganisms, and small animals. The primary intent of plant containment is to avoid the unintentional transmission of a recombinant DNA-containing plant genome or the release of recombinant DNA-derived organisms associated with plants. The containment principles are based on the recognition that the organisms that are used pose no health threat to humans or higher animals (unless deliberately modified for that purpose), and that the containment conditions minimize the possibility of an unanticipated deleterious effect on organisms and ecosystems outside of the experimental facility (e.g., the inadvertent spread of a serious pathogen from a greenhouse to a local agricultural crop or the unintentional introduction and establishment of an organism in a new ecosystem). For experiments in which plants are grown in the laboratory setting, laboratory containment practices should be followed as described previously. These containment practices include the use of plant tissue culture rooms, growth chambers within laboratory facilities, or experiments performed on open benches. Additional biological containment practices should be added as necessary, if botanical reproductive structures are produced that have the potential of being released. |
Plant Biological Safety Levels
