Biosafety of plant pathology research: Time for new symbology and biosafety levels?

Abstract Text: We contend that symbols for biosafety practices for plant pathology research need updating. It has been over 30 years since the NIH Guidelines Appendix P (now Appendix L), which is dedicated to working with recombinant molecules involving plants, was published. Appendix L delineates features and practices that apply biosafety levels BL1-P through BL4-P.  These biosafety levels were leveraged from both the greater NIH Guidelines, namely biosafety levels BL1-4, and from the CDC guidelines biosafety levels BSL1-4. The two latter classifications were created primarily to protect research workers from harm whereas plant research is contained and confined to prevent harm to natural or managed environments. For non-recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecule research, the USDA-APHIS does not assign biosafety levels apart from work with Select Agent plant pathogens. New universal plant containment levels are suggested to replace existing biosafety levels for a wide range of contained plant work. Further, the use of the Universal Biohazard Symbol (UBS) is regularly misapplied to transgenic and other plant research. The UBS was created for protecting humans from biological risks, but misapplication creates unnecessary alarm, restricts access, and reduces the power of the symbol. There does exist a small number of situations where plant research creates a risk to humans which would require posting the UBS and an appropriate biosafety level. We suggest a new plant containment symbol along with appropriate plant containment levels to replace or augment the existing systems.