More than 450 world experts from 60 countries will converge on Adelaide this week to discuss the importance of DNA "barcoding" - a rapidly growing international initiative to develop a genetic identity tool for all plants and animals on Earth.

The Fourth International Barcode of Life Conference will be held at the University of Adelaide from Wednesday 30 November to Saturday 3 December, with pre-conference workshops and other events on Monday and Tuesday 28-29 November.

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This innovative area, which combines biodiversity science and genomics technologies, has a range of useful applications such as disease and pest identification, rapid environmental survey, and providing a basic understanding of how many species we have on Earth.

This is the first time this major conference is being held in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Chairs of the conference are:

Professor Andrew Lowe, Professor of Plant Conservation Biology at the University of Adelaide and Head of Science at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Professor Lowe is Director of the Australian Centre of Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity at the University of Adelaide and is a key researcher with the University's Environment Institute;

and Dr David Schindel, Executive Secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL).

For more information, visit: www.dnabarcodes2011.org