Gene Test on Alfalfa Plots Faces U.S. Probe
Three years ago in an alfalfa field somewhere in San Diego, a biotechnology company quietly began an experiment that, it now appears, came perilously close to violating federal rules that regulate the release of genetically engineered bacteria into the environment.
What the scientists at the San Diego-based Westbridge Research Group did was inject a new bacterium into alfalfa seeds that were subsequently planted in a test plot at an undisclosed site in San Diego, as well as in Nebraska, Montana and South Dakota.
The bacteria were designed by Gary Strobel, the controversial Montana State University molecular biologist, to increase the alfalfa’s growth rate by converting atmospheric nitrogen into plant nutrients.
The firm’s experiments, which did not work, are coming under federal scrutiny in the wake of the notoriety that Strobel gained last month when it was revealed that he had injected genetically engineered bacteria into elm trees on the Bozeman campus of Montana State without obtaining permission from either the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or university officials. Critics are charging that the bacteria used by Westbridge were also genetically engineered, an allegation disputed by Strobel.
Potential Penalties
If the bacteria had been genetically engineered, then its testing would have marked the first release--authorized or unauthorized--of such an organism into the environment, and both Strobel and Westbridge could face potential penalties from government regulators.
Reached Wednesday by telephone, Strobel said from Bozeman 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 in developing guidelines to control 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 Montana State’s biosafety committee, which 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 Wednesday that the company had done the experiments. He said Westbridge, which was founded in 1982 to manufacture plant growth stimulants, was approached by Strobel.
Salk added that Strobel said that greenhouse studies of the bacteria had shown that the bacteria 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 bacteria, tested in 1984, were “plain not effective,” Salk said, and Westbridge abandoned the project.
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 United States. A naturally occurring bacterium called Pseudomonas syringae produces an antibiotic that kills the fungus but not enough to be useful in fighting the pest.
Mated Bacteria
So 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 the EPA and his university’s biosafety 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,” he said.
Last week, the EPA reprimanded Strobel, saying that the experiment should be terminated and that a co-sponsor would be required if he sought permission for future experiments.
Chemically Sterilized
Strobel met with Montana State President William Tietz Wednesday afternoon and 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. “But I don’t believe they represent any danger.”
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.
The 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.
