Genome-Wide Identification of the TCP Gene Family in Broussonetia papyrifera and Functional Analysis of BpTCP8, 14 and 19 in Shoot Branching

Abstract

The plant-specific TCP family proteins play an important role in the processes of plant growth and development. Broussonetia papyrifera is a versatile perennial deciduous tree, and its genome data have been published. However, no comprehensive analysis of the TCP gene family in B. papyrifera has been undertaken. In this study, 20 BpTCP genes (BpTCPs) were identified in the B. papyrifera genome. Phylogenetic analysis divided BpTCPs into three subclades, the PCF subclade, the CIN subclade and the CYC/TB1 subclade. Gene structure analysis displayed that all BpTCPs except BpTCP19 contained one coding region. Conserved motif analysis showed that BpTCP proteins in the same subclade possessed similar motif structures. Segmental duplication was the primary driving force for the expansion of BpTCPs. Expression patterns showed that BpTCPs may play diverse biological functions in organ or tissue development. Transcriptional activation activity analysis of BpTCP8, BpTCP14 and BpTCP19 showed that they possessed transcriptional activation ability. The ectopic expression analysis in Arabidopsis wild-type and AtBRC1 ortholog mutant showed that BpTCP8, BpTCP14 and BpTCP19 could prevent rosette branch outgrowth. Collectively, our study not only established the first genome-wide analysis of the B. papyrifera TCP gene family, but also provided valuable information for understanding the function of BpTCPs in shoot branching.

Comparative genomic investigation of TCP gene family in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and expression analysis under divergent treatments

“…3). The structural assembly of TCP members in eggplant is comparable to that of TCP members in Vitis vinifera (Leng et al 2019b;Jiu et al 2019a) and Broussonetia papyrifera (Zhao et al 2020). This demonstrates genomic divergence during evolution, as evidenced by discrepancies in structural assembly between Class I and Class II.…”

Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly for Acer pseudosieboldianum and Highlights to Mechanisms for Leaf Color and Shape Change

“…Leaf shape is a complex trait controlled by multiple genes and is of great significance for plant photosynthetic energy storage and resistance to stress ( Testone et al, 2019 ; He P. et al, 2020 ). Teosinte branched1, cycloidea, and proliferating cell factors (TCPs), belonging to the bHLH transcription factor family, are widely involved in leaf morphology regulation ( Aggarwal et al, 2010 ; Zhao M. L. et al, 2020 ; Lan et al, 2021 ). Previous studies have confirmed that TCP transcription factors widely participate in the regulation of flower shape, leaf shape, and stem and root development and have been identified in many plant species ( Wang et al, 2019 ; He J. et al, 2020 ; Wen et al, 2020 ).…”

Genome-wide TCP transcription factors analysis provides insight into their new functions in seasonal and diurnal growth rhythm in Pinus tabuliformis

“…For example, the genome size of tomato is 960 Mb with only 30 TCP members, while the genome size of apple is 742 Mb with 52 TCP members [ 45 , 46 ]. The diversity of the number of TCP family members in different species may be influenced by genome duplication events, such as whole genome duplication, segmental duplication or tandem duplication [ 7 ]. We intended to seek evolutionary relics of WGD in P. tabuliformis by detecting paralogous synteny gene blocks among different chromosomes.…”

“…In addition, several members of clade I have another conserved region outside the bHLH domains named the R domain, which is an arginine-rich motif containing eighteen to twenty residues [ 5 ]. The R domain may also be involved in protein–protein interactions [ 7 , 8 ].…”