Biotechnology Tests May Have Infringed on Rules : Critics Say San Diego Firm Released Genetically Engineered Material Into Environment

Three years ago, in an alfalfa field somewhere in San Diego, a San Diego-based biotechnology company apparently brushed against the fringes of the rules regulating the release of genetically engineered bacteria into the environment.

Scientists at Westbridge Research Group, located on Scripps Lake Drive, injected a new bacterium into alfalfa seeds that were subsequently planted in test plots in San Diego, Nebraska, Montana, and South Dakota. The bacteria were designed by molecular biologist Gary Strobel of Montana State University to increase the alfalfa’s growth rate by converting atmospheric nitrogen into plant nutrients.

Strobel gained notoriety last month when it was revealed that he had injected genetically engineered bacteria into elm tress on the Bozeman campus of MSU without obtaining permission from either the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or university officials. Critics have charged that the bacteria used by Westbridge were also genetically engineered.

If they were, then their testing would have marked the first release of such an organism into the environment, and both Strobel and Westbridge would face potential penalties from government regulators.

Reached Wednesday, Strobel said that the bacteria tested by Westbridge were “totally made by natural mating” techniques and that no permission for testing was required.

The dispute illustrates many of the problems that the federal government is running into as it develops guidelines for controlling the testing and use of genetically engineered organisms and products.

“It’s still not clear even what the definition of genetic engineering is,” said pathologist David Young, chairman of the MSU bio-safety committee that has been investigating Strobel’s actions. “But there were enough questions about the nature of the bacteria he was using that he should have come to us before proceeding with his experiments.”

An official of Westbridge, Peter Salk, son of polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk, confirmed that the company--which was founded in 1982 to manufacture plant growth stimulants--was approached by Strobel, who said that greenhouse studies of the bacteria had shown that it would increase alfalfa yields. “We were advised by Strobel that no permission was required to field test it because it was not made by genetic engineering,” Salk said.

The tests were conducted in 1984, Salk said, but the bacteria were “plain not effective,” and Westbridge abandoned the project. Strobel said that the new bacteria were out-competed by naturally occurring bacteria and died out.

Strobel got in trouble last month for his research on ways to combat Dutch elm disease, a fungal infection that has destroyed large numbers of trees in the U.S. A naturally occurring bacterium called Pseudomonas syringae produces an antibiotic that kills the fungus, but not enough to be useful in fighting the pest.

Strobel devised a way to make the bacteria produce more of the antibiotic. He repeatedly mated the bacterium with another bacterium that inserted some of its own DNA into the Pseudomonas genes at random.

After screening 15,000 bacteria, Strobel found one offspring in which the added DNA caused the gene that codes for the antibiotic to produce much more of it. The catch was that the bacterium he mated to the Pseudomonas had been genetically engineered so that it could transfer its DNA more easily.

Because one of the bacteria was engineered, Strobel should have applied to both EPA and his university’s bio-safety committee for approval to test the new organism. He did not do so, he said, “because I honestly was not assessed of the regulation when I started the experiment.”

Once he learned about the regulation, he said, “I proceeded because I would have lost a year if I had applied to EPA then, and I didn’t think I was using a genetically engineered organism. I’m a law-abiding scientist.”

Last week, EPA reprimanded Strobel, saying the experiment should be terminated and that a co-sponsor would be required if he sought permission for future experiments.

Strobel met with MSU President William Tietz Wednesday afternoon, then announced that the trees would be cut down and burned and the trunks chemically sterilized today. “I’m doing this of my own volition,” he said.

In the alfalfa experiments, Strobel used a strain of Rhizobium bacteria that infect the plant’s roots and produce a nitrogen fertilizer. In those experiments, he said, none of the organisms that were mated had been genetically engineered.

EPA said Wednesday that it had no purview to investigate Strobel’s alfalfa experiments because it had no guidelines in effect at the time of the experiments. A spokesman for the National Institutes of Health, which did have jurisdiction, said Wednesday that a panel was being formed to investigate the experiments.