TRITON Magazine Fall 2021 | Page 30

Thermophile Conference Yellowstone , 1995

Once Taq optimized PCR , the process was used back in Yellowstone to test bison for the bacterium Brucella abortus , fear of which led to much controversy as nearby ranchers slaughtered thousands of bison that left park boundaries . Biotech company Diversa helped the park set up a lab to detect the disease . Here , Lindstrom starts the PCR process with colleague Rusty Rodriguez .
But let ’ s rewind back to our man in Yellowstone : Lindstrom ’ s biology education kept bubbling up through further roles at the park , until he eventually became the research permit coordinator — the primary liaison for scientists seeking biological samples from park lands . “ Eventually , it was understood that I could talk knowledgeably to these scientists about what they wanted and where it might be found ,” he explains . PCR had hit the big time , and with Yellowstone yielding the key that unlocked the process , other bioprospectors were eager to see what else could be found . “ Before Taq , nobody really understood the potential of thermophiles ,” says Lindstrom . “ But afterward , there was a surge of interest in every kind of habitat : pools and mudpots of different temperature , pH , acidity . In such unique chemistry , there were a lot of unknowns .”
Would the next enzyme be the protein-eating protease , thermophilic enough to survive the hot water cycle in a laundry machine ? Or something from Thermoanerobacter ethanolicus , which turns sugar into ethanol ? Such interest inspired Lindstrom to host the first science conference on
Yellowstone microbiology , bringing together key figures such as Brock and Gelfand along with microbiologists , astrobiologists , lawyers , corporate executives and conservationists alike . “ We needed to have a conference to straighten out bioprospecting and its attending issues , like who owns the patent rights ,” he says . “ Brock had put Thermus aquaticus in the ATCC well before anyone thought of things like that , and Gelfand got his from there , so the issue was moot when it came to PCR . But moving forward , it was apparent that the national park system had to consider how to preserve the genetic resources they had , and make policy on allowing for their use by industry for the benefit of society .”
Among the first to engage in these new policies was the San Diego biotech company Diversa , which entered into an intellectual property agreement with the National Park Service to commercially develop products derived from Yellowstone ’ s genetic resources . Jeff Stein , PhD ’ 91 , led Diversa ’ s microbial diversity division at the time and was among the researchers Lindstrom brought to the backcountry .
While in graduate school at Scripps Institution of Oceanography , Stein had done similar bioprospecting , albeit underwater in the unique seafloor environments near hydrothermal vents . After graduation , Stein was at the forefront of using the PCR process to capture DNA sequences straight
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