The primary application of the methodology will be the identification of the many species in the world's bio-diversity hot spots where a shortage of specialists hinders conservation efforts.

Other applications include identifying illegal trade in endangered species, identifying invasive organisms, poisonous species and fragmentary material in forensic investigations.

The technique will work on minute amounts of tissue and can be used on fragments of plant material, small seedlings, and in some cases digested or processed samples.

The report appears this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.