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Premise of the study: Microsatellite primers were developed for the parasitic mistletoe Phoradendron californicum to investigate to what extent population genetic structure depends on host tree distribution within a highly fragmented landscape.

Methods and Results: Fourteen unlinked polymorphic and four monomorphic nuclear microsatellite markers were developed using a genomic shotgun pyrosequencing method. A total of 187 alleles plus four monomorphic loci alleles were found in 98 individuals sampled in three populations from the Sonoran Desert in the Baja California peninsula (Mexico). Loci averaged 13.3 alleles per locus (range 4-28), and observed and expected heterozygosities within populations varied from 0.167-0.879 and 0.364-0.932, respectively.

Conclusions: Levels of polymorphism of the reported markers are adequate for studies of diversity and fragmentation in natural populations of this parasitic plant. Cross-species amplifications in P. juniperinum and P. diguetianum only showed four markers that could be useful in P. diguetianum.