[Purpose/significance] Data object traceability assurance research can reduce exposure risk of cross-domain, massive, heterogeneous and dynamic data loss in big data era, and contribute to automated data quality evaluation, data audit and data recovery. [Method/process] Based on the theory of data provenance and cryptography, a new version number calculation method of data objects is provided. Then, the concept of data object DNA are described, and a new method for generating as well as backtracking the data object DNA are also proposed. Furthermore,The IT implementation and applications of it are discussed. [Result/conclusion] Data object DNA, which is a new method to support unified data traceability, is producing easliy, tamper-proof, strong universality, and can be used to data object lineage inspection and data continuity audit.