YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — In the 1980s, a researcher at the Cetus Corporation named Kary Mullis was searching for a way to speed the replication of DNA. Enzymes used to amplify the genetic code broke down when they were heated. Dr. Mullis had the idea of using a heat-resistant enzyme called Taq polymerase, which made DNA amplification a central tool in genetic research, earned him a Nobel Prize and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.

The reason the enzyme was heat-tolerant is that it came from a bacterium called Thermus aquaticus that lived in the simmering waters of Mushroom Pool here. Taq, as it came to be known, was first identified in 1966. But despite how spectacularly useful it has turned out to be, no royalties have gone to Yellowstone or the National Park Service.

“In bio-prospecting circles, it’s called the great Taq rip-off,” said Tom Olliff, chief of the Yellowstone Resource Center. “The director of the National Park Service told us not to let that happen again.”

To that end, the Park Service recently released a draft environmental impact statement that proposes to create a policy for what it calls “benefits sharing” with the service if any commercial discoveries grow out of research in the national parks.