the invention provides a composition including dna bonded to a plasma - treated surface , the plasma can be any suitable plasma , such as an argon plasma , a compressed air plasma , a flame - based plasma or a vacuum plasma . surfaces treatable by the methods of the invention include ceramic , metal , fabric and organic polymer surfaces . the dna can be any dna , such as a marker dna , which can be linear or circular , single - stranded or double stranded and from about 25 bases to about 10 , 000 bases in length . also provided is a method of binding dna to a surface , including the steps of exposing the surface to a plasma to produce a plasma - treated surface ; and applying dna to the plasma - treated surface to produce surface bound dna on the treated surface . a system for binding dna to a surface is also disclosed , the system includes a plasma generator adapted to treating a surface with a plasma to produce a plasma - treated surface ; and an applicator containing dna adapted to applying dna to the plasma - treated surface to produce surface bound dna on the plasma - treated surface .