DNA barcoding technology has rapidly developed over the last decade. The technology behind the barcoding takes the tiniest bit of DNA and compares it to known records. It can identify a whole array of organisms almost instantly. It was used to undermine a fishing scheme, where cheap fish was being passed off as its expensive counterpart. This is when DNA barcoding came under the spot and sparked a series of other useful applications. Another way that DNA barcoding has been used is in identifying mislabeled drugs. A farmer in Malaysia was treating a rubber tree with quinine which gave it a similar taste a drug used in the treatment of diabetes and malaria. The drug was almost indistinguishable from the treated rubber tree when ingested, but the DNA barcoding could easily identify the fake.
In Australia on November 26th over 450 experts will meet to discuss other issues that can be solved through the use of DNA barcoding. DNA barcoding barely existed a decade ago but now it is a vibrant community. As an example of how fast the field is growing in 2005 the University of Guelph housed 33,000 records covering 12,700 species in the Barcode of life data system, It now house over 1.4 million records covering about 167,000 species.
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