As military bands, rangers on horseback and Vice
President Al Gore marked Yellowstone National Park’s 125th
anniversary in August, park officials signed a contract that
formally opened the park’s famous hot springs to bioprospecting.
The deal allows San Diego-based Diversa Corp. to collect samples of
hot-water microbes, called thermophiles, in exchange for $175,000
over five years, plus an undisclosed share of future
profits.
While park and corporate officials
touted the deal as a tribute to the value of pristine environments
like Yellowstone, two small groups threatened to sue the National
Park Service for selling the resources national parks are supposed
to protect.
“They’re treating Yellowstone as if
it’s a business commodity,” said Beth Burrows of The Edmonds
Institute, which, with the International Center for Technology
Assessment, asked Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to halt
collection of park microorganisms until the Park Service does a
thorough public review. Says Burrows: “We didn’t preserve
Yellowstone for corporate purposes.”
Thermophiles were unknown at Yellowstone’s
inception in 1872, but today mean big money to companies like
Diversa (HCN, 4/29/96). One Yellowstone microbe, Thermus aquaticus,
produces an enzyme that makes DNA fingerprinting possible. It now
makes hundreds of millions of dollars annually for Swiss
pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-LaRoche. Although Thermus aquaticus
was discovered prior to bio-prospecting rules, Park Superintendent
Michael Finley says he hopes Hoffmann-LaRoche will make voluntary
contributions to the park.
Other biotech
companies are also eager to strike deals similar to Diversa’s,
which Finley says will both pay for natural resource management and
increase knowledge of the park’s tiniest
inhabitants.
“One good way to protect something,”
adds Diversa molecular biologist Eric Mathur, “is to show it has
value.”
* Michael
Milstein
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Microbes for sale here.
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