LEMONS grown on backyard trees are urgently being sought for an important national biosecurity project.
Dr David Murphy from QUT’s Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences School, is running the Queensland component of a project funded by the Australian Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre with the aim to test if analysis on fruit flies can be used to identify the locality where the fruit fly grew up.
Lemons from Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Stanthorpe, Cairns and Bundaberg are required for the project.
“We are urgently after samples of the popular Meyer variety lemons in particular and need 6-10 lemons from each tree as well as a sample of the soil it is grown in,” Dr Murphy said.
“It is currently the ideal time to collect lemons and we need them before the second week of April. I am looking for six sites in each region and will be able to send collectors to pick up samples and a small quantity of soil.”
According to Plant Health Australia, fruit flies attack a wide range of fruit and vegetables globally. In Australia, some species of exotic fruit fly have the potential to reduce the capacity to trade in domestic and international horticultural markets with an average annual value of $4.8 billion.
“Queensland has a significant fruit fly problem and this project, which is also using fruit from NSW, South Australia, Western Australia and New Zealand, is designed to work out whether the fruit flies are local to the areas in which they are found or whether they have arrived with infested fruit transported in,” Dr Murphy said.
“If they have arrived from elsewhere then this requires quite a different scale of quarantine response than if they are local.
“We have no problem getting fruit from farmers but we want to extend the search outside of the major fruit growing regions of Australia and that’s where the home gardener can be a great help.
“The lemons will be used to grow fruit flies. The soil samples and the fruit flies will then be analysed using geochemical techniques to assess if there is a discernible geographically/geologically distinct signature for each region. We are looking for the ‘terroir’ of fruit flies, much like in grapes used for wine-making.”
To volunteer lemons for the project contact Dr Murphy at david.murphy@qut.edu.au
