use strict;
my $str = 'GROUP 1
GROUP 1 & GROUP 2
GROUP 1 & GROUP 2 & GROUP 3
GROUP 1 & GROUP 2 & GROUP 3 & GROUP 4
';
my $regex = qr/ \K&(?= .* & )/p;
my $subst = ',';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html