Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in Santalum austrocaledonicum,Santalaceae

The forest tree Santalum austrocaledonicum is endemic to the archipelagos of New Caledonia and Vanuatu, and is threatened by the reduction of the populations due to exploitation. In order to investigate the genetic diversity and structure of this species, we developed eight pairs of primers for nuclear microsatellites. These loci were polymorphic in all the populations, with a mean of three to 33 alleles per locus.