Figure 2- - uploaded by Mark D Merlin
Content may be subject to copyright.
Santalum freycinetianum Gaud. grows in seasonally dry forest at about 2000 ft elevation in the southern Wai'anae Mountains of O'ahu.
Source publication
Adaptive radiation of Santalum in the Hawaiian archipelago has provided these remote islands with a number of endemic species and var ieties. The prehistoric Polynesian inhabitants of Hawai‘i utilized the sandalwood trees for man y of the same traditional purposes as their South Pacific ancestors who had developed ethnobotanical relationships with...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... ellipticum (Coastal sandalwood) ( fig. 1); S. freycinetianum (Freycinet sandalwood) (fig. 2); S. haleakalae (Haleakala sandalwood); S. paniculatum (Hawai'i sandalwood). These four endemic species made up the source of the early 19th century sandalwood trade ( Little and Skolmen 1989:112;St. John 1947:5,18). More recently an alien Santalum species was introduced in Hawai'i. Earlier in this century, the Indian Sandalwood (S. ...
Citations
Santalum album is a slow growing hemiparasitic tree which is extensively exploited due to its use in fragrance and essential oil industries. The threat to this species has reached critical level and the species is approaching commercial extinction, widening the gap between supply and demand. The genomic resources in sandalwood are limited to two whole-genome sequences and several transcriptomes. The molecular regulation of the sesquiterpene biosynthetic pathway which produces the essential oil in the heartwood has been extensively worked and most of the genes in the pathway have been functionally characterized. Hence, research in sandalwood is now poised to enable genomewide surveys to associate genetic variability with phenotypic traits, underpin adaptive potential of populations, in vitro production of essential oil through metabolite engineering, and development of super barcodes for timber forensics. The insights gained from the genomic resources in this tropical species can facilitate formulation of effective conservation and breeding strategies.KeywordsBiomarkerMetabolite engineeringSandalwoodSesquiterpenesSuper barcodesTranscriptomes
